Imagine living in a country where private companies need the government's consent to operate.
Depending on your age, you may think that it is about Russia from Soviet times or Russia during Putin's rule. You will definitely think about contemporary China, where the government is the official partner of many private companies, and unofficially has a significant impact on most of them.
In 2025, you can also think that this is starting to describe America during Trump's second term. For example Last week, he called the President of Intel to resign from his position because of his earlier business connections with China. In June he approved the Nippon Steel plan regarding the purchase of US Steel, but only after The US government received the so -called “Golden participation”which gives Washington the ability to approve or block some decisions, such as closing the plants. In January, Trump suggested that The US government should have some shares in American Tiktoka operations.
Now Trump requires that NVIDIA and AMD pay 15 percent. revenues from the sale of advanced chips to China, “Financial Times said. (NVIDIA issued a statement in which she points out that “it warns the rules set by the US government regarding participation in world markets”, without referring directly to reports; AMD and the White House have not yet commented on the case).
You can discuss each of these decisions – the sale of chips to China is a particularly controversial issue, even within the Trump administration. But looking at them together, it's hard to deny that In the Trump 2.0 version, the Federal Government is increasingly interfering with private companies.
“Let's call it state capitalism – a hybrid of socialism and capitalism, in which the state manages the decisions of nominally private enterprises,” wrote Greg IP on Monday morning, columnist for “Wall Street Journal”. This is an extremely current text that apparently arose before the disclosure of the Nvidia/AMD case, because it does not contain any mention of it.
The Trump intervention list can be even longer: for example, he personally forced the former owner Paramount, Shari Redstone, payment of $ 16 million. as part of a settlement regarding a seemingly unfounded claim. Brendan Carr, appointed by Trump, the head of the Federal Communications Committee, demanded that the new owners Paramount the promise “to eliminate prejudices that undermined trust in national information media”. One can also mention concessions, which Trump demands from the most prestigious universities and law firms in the country.
The matter of chips is particularly difficult to understand because it reverses the assumptions of the customs policy, which Trump promoted this year. Instead of taxing goods produced abroad and imported to the USA, now the USA imposes tax on goods produced by American companies – in America – exactly what Trump allegedly wants more.
It is not a surprise that Donald Trump says one thing and he does another. And after half a year of his second term, it is no longer surprising that the Congress controlled by the Republicans allows him to do almost everything he wants: this is the same congress that last year adopted a law requiring that American Tiktoka operations would find a national buyer or closed – and did not say a word about the fact that Trump decided to ignore her many times.
And again – you may not worry about the current activities of Trump's administration towards companies. You can even support them. But the likelihood is growing that the federal government will start interfering with the industry or company you care about. Maybe even one in which you work. How will you feel with it then?
