Expanding his radical ambitions, Trump intervenes in private American businesses

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Business leaders thought the president would deliver tax breaks and deregulation. Then he started telling them how to run their companies.

2024: Business leaders back Trump, assume he’ll deliver corporate tax breaks and deregulation.

2025: Trump delivers corporate tax breaks and deregulation — and then starts telling those same business leaders how to run their companies. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-12T20:10:44.657Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/expanding-radical-ambitions-trump-intervenes-private-american-business-rcna224552

As is becoming increasingly clear, that includes intervening in private American businesses. The Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip published a provocative analysis this week that rang true:

A generation ago conventional wisdom held that as China liberalized, its economy would come to resemble America’s. Instead, capitalism in America is starting to look like China. Recent examples include President Trump’s demand that Intel’s chief executive resign; the 15% of certain chip sales to China that Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices will share with Washington; the ‘golden share’ Washington will get in U.S. Steel as a condition of Nippon Steel’s takeover; and the $1.5 trillion of promised investment from trading partners Trump plans to personally direct.

Ip’s report added that it would be wrong to characterize this as “socialism,” because it more closely resembles “state capitalism, a hybrid between socialism and capitalism in which the state guides the decisions of nominally private enterprises.”

The Journal published a related analysis last week, noting that the American president “has no qualms about acting as the micromanager in chief,” which includes “telling corporate bosses how to run their companies.”

The president calling for the ouster of Intel’s CEO because of something Trump saw on Fox Business was certainly a dramatic example, but as the article noted, it was part of a pattern: “Trump has told Detroit carmakers not to raise prices and demanded Walmart ‘eat the tariffs.’ He has pressured the Washington Commanders football team to change its name and wants Coca-Cola to use cane sugar instead of corn syrup.”.....

During the 2024 race, when many business leaders lined up behind the GOP ticket, they likely thought Republican rule would mean corporate tax breaks and fewer regulations on polluters. And while those assumptions have proven correct — the White House has delivered corporate tax breaks and freed polluters from regulatory burdens — those same business leaders have also ended up with more than they probably bargained for.

Indeed, the very idea that Trump is a pro-business president is increasingly preposterous. As he tries to dictate to America’s private sector, the Republican is also imposing erratic policies on trade tariffs and immigration, all of which are bad for employers.

[hildegaard28]

1. What else

Do you expect from a Communist?

[sinkingfeeling]

2. 'State Capitalism'. Sounds a lot like Mussolini's economic plan.

Mussolini's economic policies during this period would later be described as "economic dirigisme", an economic system where the state has the power to direct economic production and allocation of resources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_fascist_Italy#:~:text=Mussolini's%20economic%20policies%20during%20this,production%20and%20allocation%20of%20resources.