The Trump administration has involved itself in private-sector business decision-making in several deals, reflecting a level of comfort with activist economic management unusual for recent United States presidents, especially Republicans.
The actions, which range from taking ownership stakes in private firms to directing spending decisions by foreign governments, are in line with President Donald Trump’s penchant for deal-making, but are at odds with the free-market philosophy that top Republicans espoused for decades.
The administration has justified some of the deals on national security grounds, while others have been framed as improving the terms of trade with foreign nations.
Either way, though, the level of direct federal intervention into private business decisions by the Trump administration is beyond recent precedent.
Gary Hufbauer, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former Treasury official, said that the main precedent for Trump’s actions is the federal control of industrial production during World War II.
“Most U.S. industrial policy episodes involve subsidies or tariff protection to select industries, but not direct federal control,” he said.
Here are the Trump administration’s notable actions in managing private businesses directly.
MP Materials ownership stake
In July, the Defense Department, which Trump has since begun calling the War Department, became the largest shareholder of rare earth mining company MP Materials, agreeing to buy $400 million in preferred stock. The deal also includes a 10-year agreement to buy neodymium-praseodymium metal and oxide products, which are necessary to produce permanent magnets, at a price floor.
The unusual deal has been justified as necessary to compete with China in the production of rare earth minerals that have important clean energy and defense applications.
Vulcan Elements and ReElement Technologies stakes
In another rare earths-related deal, the Trump administration in November provided financing to Vulcan Elements, a startup manufacturer of rare earth magnets, and ReElement Technologies, a company that recycles and processes rare earth materials.
The deal includes a $620 million direct loan from the War Department’s Office of Strategic Capital and $50 million of federal incentives from the Commerce Department under the CHIPS and Science Act.
The government has an ownership stake in the companies through the deal. The War Department received warrants in both Vulcan Elements and ReElement Technologies. The Commerce Department got $50 million of equity in Vulcan Elements.
Trilogy Metals stake
In October, the Trump administration announced that it was taking a stake in the Canadian mining company Trilogy Metals as part of a deal for the company to explore in the Ambler Mining District in Canada, for which the administration also approved an access road long opposed by environmentalists.
Through the War Department’s Office of Strategic Capital, the Trump administration effectively spent $35.6 million to become a 10% shareholder in Trilogy Metals and to gain warrants to purchase an additional 7.5% of the company after the completion of the road.
Lithium Americas stake
The Energy Department announced in October that it had taken an equity stake in the Canadian mining company Lithium Americas as part of a restructuring of a multibillion-dollar loan given to the company to develop the Thacker Pass mine project in Nevada, the only domestic source of lithium carbonate.
The deal gives the DOE a 5% equity ownership in the form of warrants in Lithium Americas and an additional 5% ownership in the form of warrants in a joint venture with the miner and General Motors.
Westinghouse stake
The Trump administration announced a deal in late October with the nuclear giant Westinghouse to build $80 billion of reactors. The deal also involves Canadian uranium firm Cameco Corporation and Brookfield Asset Management.
White House officials said some of the funding from the deal would come from Japan or Japanese companies as part of a trade deal.
The deal commits the Commerce Department to arrange financing and facilitate the permitting and approvals for new Westinghouse nuclear reactors with an aggregate investment value of at least $80 billion.
In return, the government gets a “participation interest,” a form of ownership stake, that will give it 20% profits beyond $17.5 billion. The government can also demand that Westinghouse conduct an initial public offering if its value is expected to be $30 billion, at which point the participation interest would convert to warrants to buy 20% of the company, after deducting $17.5 billion from the value, or about an 8% stake.
US Steel ‘golden share’
The Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel entered into a merger agreement in June, subject to a national security agreement with the government that gives the administration a “golden share” in the business and gives it the final say over many business decisions. The golden share allows the government to block certain capital expenditure decisions, any renaming of the company, a change in headquarters, shutting down factories, and more.
The administration used the authority in September to block the closure of a plant in Illinois.
Directed investments under trade deals
Several of the trade deals that Trump has touted would give the administration the ability to direct investment into the U.S. by the counterparty in the trade deal.
The Japan trade deal, struck in June, includes $550 billion in investments by the Japanese government and Japanese companies to be made in the U.S. at Trump’s direction. The funds are supposed to be used for energy infrastructure and production, semiconductor manufacturing, critical minerals production, and more. That includes funding for nuclear plants and other energy projects, AI infrastructure, and specific mines, among other projects.
Similar provisions were included in deals reached with the European Union and South Korea.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent likened the trade deal provisions to a form of state-directed investment, akin to the sovereign wealth funds maintained by some governments.
“Other countries, in essence, are providing us with a sovereign wealth fund,” he said in a television interview.
Nvidia and AMD export fees
The Trump administration reached an unusual deal in August with Nvidia and AMD to have the two companies pay the government 15% of the revenues from sales of certain chips to China.
The administration has banned the sale of cutting-edge chips used for artificial intelligence to China for national security reasons. However, it lifted the export controls for the sale of less powerful chips, subject to the government taking the 15% cut.
Intel stake
The Trump administration in August took a stake of 9.9% in Intel, making it the chipmaker’s largest shareholder.
The deal involved converting government grants under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act into equity.
The CHIPS Act provided tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to bolster the domestic production of computer chips. The deal is meant to advance the goal of boosting domestic chip production by an American company. The CHIPS Act was passed on a bipartisan basis with the goal of lessening U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers, most notably Taiwan.
Precedent for the government to be involved in private industry
While the Trump administration’s direct intervention into the management of specific businesses is notable, the government’s involvement in private industry is not unprecedented.
The Biden administration, for example, carried out major initiatives of industrial policy — that is, efforts by the federal government to develop and shape specific industries. The CHIPS Act significantly increased the government’s involvement in chipmaking, including by setting labor requirements for grant recipients. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, too, included numerous provisions meant to encourage the growth of domestic clean energy companies.
The government has long helped finance private companies exporting, importing, or developing overseas. In 2018, Trump signed the BUILD Act, which created and funded the Development Finance Corporation, which invests in companies around the world to further U.S. interests.
Looking further back, the U.S. has bailed out companies or temporarily taken them over in times of financial panic or war. For example, in 2008, the Treasury took major stakes in the automakers General Motors and Chrysler and helped reorganize them.
Still, Trump’s interventions are notable in their scope and in that they are at odds with the skepticism of industrial policy and state intervention that has been strong among conservatives for years.
This story has been updated.