They should be able to tell Trump to pound sand, but can't given the state of the company. That doesn't mean that the CEO will have to resign, but they can't just ignore it entirely.
https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-...
No, a CEO should not be able to tell the government to pound sand in this type of situation.
The company he ran for over a decade just plead guilty to illegal chip design sales to China. You may not care, but that the government does is just common sense:
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/cadence-plead-guilty-pay...
I agree with you, but then we're not a serious state since we've been doing this near constantly recently. Apply it equally or don't apply it at all.
The questions Cotton asks are valid, and the legislative branch of the government, SEC, and federal law enforcement should be interested in the answers to the extent that they don't know already (given that the DOJ already negotiated the settlement).
The President of the US should have no say over who is the CEO of any private company.