It is wild to see Republicans cheering on a president who publicly threatened a CEO and stated openly that he shook the man down for a major share in his company.Heather Cox Richardson . 08.23.25
It *is* wild.
And the slapdash speed of the deal and announcement — plus the adversarial tone of the whole affair — make it even wilder.
A few questions…
What if Trump administration involvement does to Intel (and maybe others to follow?) what it’s done to the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, and Food and Drug Administration?
Will Congress recognize this as the test of separation of powers it is — and, if so, will they act to defend and preserve their constitutional obligations or won’t they?
Why in the world as we know it would traditionally freemarket warriors lay down their swords on this one?
Who is calculating the risk that this wild intervention will increase uncertainty and drive capital towards less risk?
This stock is not a gimme from Intel to the U.S. government, and it's not a new stock purchase; the money for this deal was appropriated by Congress and signed into law in 2022 by Joe Biden.
Mr. Trump negotiated for common stock — with only common access to information and voting rights — making each share owned by BlackRock and Vanguard more valuable not just because they own more of them but because they hold preferred status.
Unless the whole point was a brute force intrusion into a publicly held company, it’s wild to celebrate achieving less oversight of the funds than we (it’s our money) had before.
Congress appropriated the money as restricted funding for infrastructure, research and development, and data security under the CHIPS Act and the Secure Enclave program .…Appropriated, but never transferred … apart from this deal, the money is still in the U.S. Treasury and eligible to be returned to the general fund if it can’t be allocated for it’s intended use.
Under the Trump deal, the money will be released and may be spent however they please — bonuses, for example ... stock buybacks ... advertising ... lobbying … buying and burying competitors … whatever …. — whether it contributes meaningfully to the real economy and security of the country or not.
Unless Intel self-regulates, that money really could disappear without a trace of the use for which it was appropriated.
Pardon the mixed metaphor but that doesn’t sound like a walk off home-run on the president’s at-bat against the pitcher on the Intel team.
Sources
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70x6602pdyo
https://www.wired.com/story/trump-announce-intel-deal-equity-stake/
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/22/nx-s1-5509673/trump-says-us-government-will-take-stake-intel
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-23-2025
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