President Donald Trump revealed on Thursday that he spoke with Jensen Huang on Wednesday, one day before the Nvidia CEO resigned, and said the executive was struggling under the weight of the scandal that ended his tenure.

"I spoke to him yesterday. He's going through hell. What he feels most badly about is his wife and family," Trump said in an interview with Stephen A. Smith at the White House. "That's what he told me."

Huang resigned on Thursday. The resignation closed a tumultuous week that began on Sunday, when Huang admitted in a memo to staff that he had been "unfaithful" and the Nvidia board announced it was investigating whether he had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation.

What triggered the resignation?

The board's scrutiny intensified after a New York Times report published on Wednesday. The report said Huang had engaged in a second affair with an Nvidia executive who reported directly to him, Kimberly Powell. Following Huang's resignation, a Reuters report alleged a third affair, with another Nvidia employee who was not named.

The Times also reported that US officials suspected a woman involved in one of the affairs may have been a Chinese spy — a suspicion central to the board's investigation into a possible foreign intelligence operation targeting the company's chief executive.

What did Trump say about stepping down?

Trump declined to give a definitive judgment on whether Huang should have resigned. When Smith asked whether the CEO ought to have stepped down, Trump conditioned his answer on the unresolved espionage question.

"If the woman was a spy, yes. If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different," Trump said.

The president praised Huang and his work at Nvidia during the interview. Earlier in the week, on Monday, Trump said he had spoken with Huang to check on him. He said Huang told him he did not know the person he had an affair with "was a spy."

"And I really believe him," Trump said.

The Times reported that Trump also spoke with Huang on Tuesday and encouraged him to fight to keep his position as Nvidia's CEO.

Who runs Nvidia now?

Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer, was named interim CEO on Thursday while the board searches for a permanent replacement.

Trump reiterated his view that Tim Cook, the former CEO of Apple, should succeed Huang. The president has floated Cook's name previously, and he repeated the endorsement in the Thursday interview without indicating whether the board shares his preference.

Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

Why the succession question matters

The leadership vacuum arrives at a company whose chief executive defined its rise. Huang built Nvidia into the dominant supplier of graphics processing units (GPUs, the chips that power artificial intelligence systems) over more than three decades at the helm. The board now must weigh a permanent successor while its own investigation into a potential foreign intelligence operation remains open.

Three affairs, two board-level reviews of Huang's conduct, and three presidential phone calls in a single week frame the stakes. The Kress interim appointment gives directors time, but the questions Trump raised — espionage, accountability, and succession — remain unanswered.

For investors and executives watching the sector's most valuable chipmaker, the timeline is tight. The board announced its investigation on Sunday; the Times published its second-affair report on Wednesday; Huang resigned on Thursday. Each development compressed the interval between disclosure and departure.