Matt Pottinger is a former US Deputy National Security Adviser who served during Trump's first term (2019–2021) and a former Wall Street Journal reporter in China. He is a China-policy hawk active in debates over AI export controls.
Background
Before government service, Pottinger worked as a Wall Street Journal reporter based in China. He served as US Deputy National Security Adviser from 2019 to 2021, during Trump's first term.
Positions on AI and China policy
Pottinger is among the prominent China-hawk voices on AI export controls, and frames US-China AI competition as a decisive 21st-century national-security issue.
He signed the July 28, 2025 letter to Secretary Lutnick urging reversal of Nvidia H20 chip exports to China (see Letter to Sec. Lutnick on H20 Restrictions (2025-07-28)), appearing alongside Stewart Baker and David Feith as one of the lead names on the letter. The letter has been characterized as a MAGA-aligned critique of the administration's H20 reversal rather than a Democratic critique, and Pottinger's participation connects the first-Trump-administration national-security establishment to second-Trump-administration policy debates.
Relationships
- related: Letter to Sec. Lutnick on H20 Restrictions (2025-07-28), Export Controls (AI), CSET + DOJ + CSIS — US-China AI National-Security Axis (composite source summary), CSIS — DeepSeek, Huawei, Export Controls, and the Future of the U.S.-China AI Race (Allen, March 2025), Nvidia & TSMC — AI Compute Infrastructure, DeepSeek.