THE NEW YORK TIMES: The president is demanding government stakes in U.S. companies and cuts of their revenue. Experts see some similarities to state-managed capitalism in other parts of the world.
Corporate America has built up defenses against the likes of Carl Icahn, Nelson Peltz and other corporate raiders who have rattled the cages of chief executives, pushing for higher stock prices. Now companies have a new investor to worry about: the president of the United States.
President Trump has inserted the government into U.S. companies in extraordinary ways, including taking a stake in U.S. Steel and pushing for a cut of Nvidia’s and Advanced Micro Devices’ revenue from China. Last month, the Pentagon said it was taking a 15 percent stake in MP Materials, a large American miner of rare earths.
And on Friday, Intel agreed to allow the U.S. government to take a 10 percent stake in its business, worth $8.9 billion.
These developments could herald a shift from America’s vaunted free-market system to one that resembles, at least in some corners, a form of state-managed capitalism more frequently seen in Europe and, to a different degree, China and Russia, say lawyers, bankers and academics steeped in the history of hostile takeovers and international business.
And the actions are sending Wall Street’s bankers and lawyers scrambling to help companies come up with a playbook to defend against or least find ways to mollify Mr. Trump. » | Lauren Hirsch and Maureen Farrell | Saturday, August 23, 2025
Trump wants a “government stake” in American companies. For ‘government stake’, shouldn’t we be reading ‘Trump stake’? This must surely be one more scheme to make Trump and his family mega wealthy! And it goes without saying that America;s CEOs will be weak and feeble enough to go along with it.
This SCHEME sounds like something straight out of Hitler’s playbook to me! — © Mark Alexander
