Should the government be in the business of business?
Consider This from NPR
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4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 August 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
What happens when the federal government owns part of a company?
That’s one of MANY questions about federal policy right now, as the Trump Administration aggressively pushes for stakes — and oversight — of major private companies.
This week, the White House announced it was taking a ten percent stake in the struggling technology giant Intel.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says the administration is considering similar moves with other companies tied to the defense industry, too.
Trump looks ready to turn the U.S. into a corporate stockholder. Should the government be in the business of … business?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The story of how the U.S. government came to own 10% of a major tech company starts, as these things often do, with the post. |
| 0:08.9 | President Trump took to Truth Social a few weeks ago to say, quote, the CEO of Intel is highly conflicted and must resign immediately. |
| 0:16.3 | There is no other solution to this problem. |
| 0:19.7 | Well, that CEO, Lip Bhutan, paid a visit to the White House. |
| 0:22.9 | And he came in, he saw me, we talked for a while. I liked him a lot. I thought he was very good. |
| 0:28.7 | And it turned out there was another solution to the problem. I said, you know what? I think the |
| 0:33.8 | United States would be given 10% of Intel. |
| 0:41.8 | And he said, I would consider that. On Friday, they confirmed they had a deal. |
| 0:44.0 | Billions of dollars in grants funded by the Chips and Science Act and the Defense Department |
| 0:48.5 | in exchange for 433.3 million shares of Intel. |
| 0:57.5 | It's unusual for the government to get involved in private enterprise like this, especially for a Republican president. And a few Republicans have been speaking out, like Senator |
| 1:04.0 | Tom Tillis, the retiring senator from North Carolina, on CBS last week, after the Intel deal was first floated. |
| 1:10.2 | You're going to have to explain to me how this reconciles with true conservatism |
| 1:13.5 | and true free market capitalism. |
| 1:16.8 | I don't see it. |
| 1:18.1 | This is not the only business intervention of Trump's second term. |
| 1:21.9 | As part of the government's approval of a sale of U.S. steel to the Japanese company |
| 1:26.0 | Nippon Steel. The administration negotiated |
| 1:28.4 | what Trump called a golden stock. We have a golden share, which I control. This gives the federal |
| 1:36.4 | government veto powers and major sway in corporate decisions. That gives you total control. |
| 1:41.8 | It's 51% ownership by Americans. |
| 1:45.0 | Trump says he wants more deals like the one he just negotiated with Intel. |
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