Trump tells Congress to end CHIPS Act
President Donald Trump told Speaker Mike Johnson in his joint address to Congress Tuesday “you should get rid of the CHIP Act and whatever's left over Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.”
Christine Mui
03/04/2025, 10:33pm ET
President Donald Trump in his joint address to Congress delivered his sharpest rebuke of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act yet, telling lawmakers to “get rid” of the law while touting top Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC’s latest $100 billion investment in new U.S. factories.
“We’re not giving them any money. Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars. It doesn't mean anything,” Trump said in reference to TSMC, whose CEO announced the new projects at the White House Monday. “All that was important was they didn't want to pay the tariffs.”
In the Senate, 17 Republicans voted for the CHIPS Act when it passed in 2022.
The CHIPS Act set aside $39 billion in grants for companies building new semiconductor manufacturing sites in the U.S. But most of that money has already been promised to chipmakers and was signed into contracts by the end of the Biden administration. TSMC, for instance, has received at least $1.5 billion of its total $6.6 billion CHIPS Act award.
This is not the first time the president has gone after the law, and after his Tuesday remarks, it remains unclear if Trump plans to pay out the rest. He told Speaker Mike Johnson “you should get rid of the CHIP Act and whatever's left over Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.”
President Donald Trump told Speaker Mike Johnson in his joint address to Congress Tuesday “you should get rid of the CHIP Act and whatever's left over Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.”
Christine Mui
03/04/2025, 10:33pm ET
President Donald Trump in his joint address to Congress delivered his sharpest rebuke of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act yet, telling lawmakers to “get rid” of the law while touting top Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC’s latest $100 billion investment in new U.S. factories.
“We’re not giving them any money. Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars. It doesn't mean anything,” Trump said in reference to TSMC, whose CEO announced the new projects at the White House Monday. “All that was important was they didn't want to pay the tariffs.”
In the Senate, 17 Republicans voted for the CHIPS Act when it passed in 2022.
The CHIPS Act set aside $39 billion in grants for companies building new semiconductor manufacturing sites in the U.S. But most of that money has already been promised to chipmakers and was signed into contracts by the end of the Biden administration. TSMC, for instance, has received at least $1.5 billion of its total $6.6 billion CHIPS Act award.
This is not the first time the president has gone after the law, and after his Tuesday remarks, it remains unclear if Trump plans to pay out the rest. He told Speaker Mike Johnson “you should get rid of the CHIP Act and whatever's left over Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.”
