Under Trump, U.S. an active investor at scale not seen outside major crises

The Trump administration has taken direct stakes in companies on a scale rarely seen in the U.S. outside wartime or economic crisis, pushing a Republican Party that traditionally championed free-market capitalism to embrace state intervention in industries viewed as important for national security.

Japan’s Nippon Steel agreed to give President Donald Trump a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as a condition for the two companies’ controversial merger. Trump now personally wields sweeping veto power over major business decisions made by the nation’s third-largest steel producer.

“You know who has the golden share? I do,” Trump said at a summit on artificial intelligence and energy in Pittsburgh on July 15.

The president’s golden share in U.S. Steel is similar to nationalizing a company but without any of the benefits that a company normally receives, such as direct investment by the government, said Sarah Bauerle Danzman, an expert on foreign investment and national security at the Atlantic Council, a think tank focused on international affairs.

But the Trump administration demonstrated earlier this month that it is also willing to buy directly into publicly traded corporations. The Department of Defense agreed to purchase a $400 million equity stake in rare-earth miner MP Materials, making the Pentagon the company’s largest shareholder.

This level of support by the federal government for a mining company is unprecedented, said Gracelin Baskaran, an expert on critical minerals at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“This is the biggest public-private cooperation that the mining industry has ever had here in the United States,” Baskaran said. “Historically, DOD has never done equity in a mining company or a mining project.”

Trump’s unique hold over the Republican Party gives him the ability to intervene in companies on a scale that would be difficult politically for a Democratic president, Danzman said.

“The Democrat would have been accused of being a communist and a lot of other Republicans probably would not have felt comfortable moving in this particular direction because of their greater commitment to market principles,” Danzman said. Trump is expanding the range of what is possible in the U.S. in terms of state intervention in markets, she said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More interventions could be on the horizon as the Trump administration develops a policy to support U.S. companies in strategic industries against state-backed competition from China.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in April that the U.S. government might need to make an “equity investment in each of these companies that’s taking on China in critical minerals.” The Pentagon’s investment in MP Materials is a model for future public-private partnerships, CEO James Litinsky said.

“It’s a new way forward to accelerate free markets, to get the supply chain on shore that we want,” Litinsky told CNBC. The…