President Trump's deal to make the federal government a partial owner in the computer company Intel has led to backlash from free market Republicans, who say Trump is dabbling in "socialism" - but the president is pushing ahead.
A handful of Republican senators have voiced complaints about Trump's move to give the U.S. a 10% stake in the company, which was once the top American chipmaker before falling into decline.
"If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn't the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism? Terrible idea," said Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) wrote.
The Trump administration says its deal with Intel is about national security and keeping America competitive against China - which has a form of state-run capitalism - in the race for artificial intelligence.
Trump has said America "paid nothing" for the shares, which were converted from $11 billion that was pledged by the Biden administration under the CHIPS Act.
"The United States paid nothing for these Shares, and the Shares are now valued at approximately $11 Billion Dollars. This is a great Deal for America and, also, a great Deal for INTEL. Building leading edge Semiconductors and Chips, which is what INTEL does, is fundamental to the future of our Nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Thank you for your attention to this matter," Trump wrote in a post.
The overall lack of Republican pushback demonstrates how Trump has nudged the GOP from its "free market" moorings, which have been crucial to the party's identity since the Reagan era.
From Trump's early days as a politician - and even before then - Trump has advocated economic measures that most free market conservatives reject, such as tariffs, which Trump views as a tool to boost domestic manufacturing, enrich the public treasury, and help "forgotten Americans" who were left behind by globalization.
Trump's approach has been called many things - populism, protectionism, mercantilism - but his basic economic instinct is that the system should serve America and its interests. This is anathema to many free market conservatives, who see markets as ends unto themselves - and government interventions as inherently misguided and doomed to failure.
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is retiring after clashing with Trump, invoked China while criticizing Trump's Intel deal.
"I don't care if it's a dollar or a billion dollar stake," Tillis said. "That starts feeling like a semi-state owned enterprise, à la CCCP. I don't believe that the U.S. government should be picking winners and losers because you won't always be right."
A White House spokesperson said to Newsweek that the administration is "ensuring that taxpayers are able to reap the upside of the federal government's investments into safeguarding our national and economic security."
To some extent, Trump's deviations from economic orthodoxy have been overstated: his "Big, Beautiful Bill" codifies traditional Republican priorities like corporate and individual tax cuts, and he has pushed to deregulate AI.
But Republicans who disapprove of Trump's market interventions should buckle up, because Trump has more coming.
“I will make deals like that for our Country all day long," the president posted on Truth Social. “I want to try and get as much as I can."
