The U.S. government is apparently getting into the mergers and acquisitions business, which should alarm ordinary Americans — for many reasons.

In late August, the White House said it reached an agreement with semiconductor maker Intel, where the government took a 10% "passive ownership" position in the company in exchange for nearly $9 billion of taxpayer funds.

"I will make deals like that for our Country all day long," President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, while the director of the White House National Economic Council added that "there'll be more transactions, if not in this industry, then other industries."

True to their word, the Trump administration has recently acquired an equity position in a lithium mine located in Nevada and owned by a Canadian company seeking to renegotiate its federal loan granted during the first Trump term. Rather than learning a lesson from the federal government's pathetic track record with student loans, the administration decided to increase taxpayer exposure by delving into the equity markets.

In just the last few months, the White House approved the merger of U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon Steel — a deal that was delayed because of national security concerns — in return for "golden shares" and gave chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices permissions to sell leading-edge technology to Communist China for a cut of their profits.

These deals look a lot more like seizing the means of production than free-market competition. Call me old-fashioned, but that used to be called socialism. And spoiler alert: it has never ended well.

That Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) gave the Intel takeover his stamp of approval should be enough to raise the concerns of any blue-blooded conservative capitalist.

Trump wasn't shy to criticize former President Joe Biden's radical "Green New Deal" or his disastrous handling of the CHIPS Act — both poorly conceived bills that I voted against that resulted in billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded handouts to foreign companies.

But this administration effectively selling government favors isn't much better. Maybe the president can wring a few more concessions out of these companies by owning minority stakes, but it's hardly the leverage needed to shore up national security concerns. And it comes at the expense of the rule of law.

If selling high-tech chips to China jeopardizes our national defense, it doesn't matter if the name on the package is Nvidia, AMD or Uncle Sam, Inc. — it still undermines our security. If the acquisition of a major steel producer compromises U.S. manufacturing and military readiness, a so-called golden share doesn't diminish the threat. If Intel is not qualified to receive federal grants, a 10% government equity position doesn't make it suddenly more qualified. And if a Canadian lithium mining company has trouble paying back its federal loans, an American taxpayer-funded bailout is not the answer.

These aren't good business deals; they are selling our national security in exchange for a small fraction of the proceeds. And, as free-market advocates point out, they come at the expense of ordinary investors, whose market value is diluted by such federal money grabs. These risky expenditures also occur while the U.S. is carrying over $36 trillion of debt and with the very real nightmare of Social Security and Medicare becoming insolvent.

Trump cares about his legacy — which, following his predecessor's ineptitude, could be one of rebuilding America's economy and middle-class prosperity, restoring law and order, and dismantling a reckless regulatory bureaucracy. But the precedent set by the government gambling in the markets could open the door to even more abuse by future administrations.

What's to stop Democrats from using these forays into private enterprise to feed taxpayer money into companies advocating DEI, or to force businesses to unionize or conform to the next woke cause celebre to receive a similar equity investment?

Uncle Sam has never been a savvy businessman. The government has earned its reputation for moving slowly and being notoriously bad at picking winners and losers. That doesn't change no matter what party is in office. With his extensive business background, Trump should know that as well as anyone.

I hope this president will reconsider the misguided strategy of gambling in the stock market, and instead double down on free-market enterprise — a force that has made America's economy the envy of the world for centuries — and leave the investing to Wall Street.

Ken Buck served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015-2024 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district. He now serves as a Fellow with the Independent Center. To find out more about Ken Buck and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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