The demands from Trump, who remains popular with Republican voters ahead of the 2024 election, were made in a post on his Truth Social media account on Thursday. “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem,” the former president wrote.

Trump provided no further explanation about the nature of Tan’s “conflict” or what, specifically, he thinks Intel should do to address it. His comments come in response to growing Republican concern about Tan’s business ties to China, just days after Senator Tom Cotton, a conservative from Arkansas, raised “concern about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations” in a letter to the company’s board chair, Frank Yeary.

The issues raised by Senator Cotton are particularly significant given Intel’s status as the world’s largest and most advanced chipmaker. Tan, a veteran Silicon Valley investor and a prolific venture capitalist with decades of experience in semiconductors, has spent the majority of his career in Asia, where he has established a sprawling network of companies through his San Francisco-based venture capital firm and affiliated companies in Hong Kong.

Tan’s investments have included Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), now the largest chipmaker in China.

Cadence Design Systems’ breach of US export controls has also drawn scrutiny to Tan’s previous management role at the California-based software company. Last week, Cadence acknowledged a breach of US export controls, saying that it had sold its chip design tools to a Chinese university that has links to China’s military. The fact that Tan, with his network of investments and deep professional ties to Asia, was chosen to lead Intel at a time when China is seen as Intel’s most potent competitive threat has provoked questions in Washington and beyond.

Intel declined to comment on the matter, and a White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Financial Times. However, the company’s share price fell 3 percent in pre-market trading in New York on Thursday morning in the wake of Trump’s post.

Tan, 66, was unanimously selected by Intel’s board of directors to take over as CEO in March, following its ouster of Pat Gelsinger in December. The former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) executive joined Intel in 2018 as its CEO before leaving two years later to start an artificial intelligence company.

Tan’s appointment comes as the company grapples with a stagnating share price and mounting competition from TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker by market value. While Intel is the last remaining US-based manufacturer of advanced semiconductors, it has been largely shut out of the current boom in artificial intelligence chips and chipmaking tools. The losses of ground have led to billions of dollars in government subsidies and loans for Intel as part of Washington’s broader effort to revive domestic semiconductor manufacturing and wean the United States off its reliance on overseas chipmakers, particularly in Taiwan and South Korea.

Tan, an investor and entrepreneur with deep ties to Asia, has a long track record of building and running semiconductor and venture capital businesses in both the United States and Asia.

In July, Tan said Intel would consider pausing its development of its next-generation manufacturing technology if it did not find a “significant external customer” to support the company’s efforts. That acknowledgment that Intel could lose ground to TSMC and its only other competitor for leading-edge chipmaking, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, came as the company launched a cost-cutting effort aimed at restoring profits.

Senator Cotton has argued that as a recipient of US taxpayer-funded subsidies, Intel is required to be a responsible steward of that investment and to comply with applicable security regulations. “Mr Tan’s associations raise questions about Intel’s ability to fulfill these obligations,” Cotton wrote.

Trump’s demand for Tan’s resignation has significant political implications for Intel, which has found itself caught in the middle of growing partisanship in Washington over national security and trade. On one side, Tan’s ties to China and his investments in Chinese companies play into a broader narrative in Washington that the United States is ceding its competitive edge to China, both in technology and geopolitics.