Trump’s State Capitalism, by the Numbers |
Ongoing reports and analysis
U.S. President Donald Trump spent the first year of his second term blurring the lines between government and business in unprecedented ways. This has ranged from an attempt to create a sovereign wealth fund to the military capture of Venezuela’s president—an operation that was aimed at least in part at opening up that country’s vast oil reserves to U.S. companies, which Trump hinted he may subsidize to nudge them into doing his bidding rather than what their shareholders or directors might want.
Trump has also taken to unprecedented levels of other forms of state intervention in the economy, from tariffs (and preferential exemptions for favored firms) to export taxes and regulatory bullying.
U.S. President Donald Trump spent the first year of his second term blurring the lines between government and business in unprecedented ways. This has ranged from an attempt to create a sovereign wealth fund to the military capture of Venezuela’s president—an operation that was aimed at least in part at opening up that country’s vast oil reserves to U.S. companies, which Trump hinted he may subsidize to nudge them into doing his bidding rather than what their shareholders or directors might want.
Trump has also taken to unprecedented levels of other forms of state intervention in the economy, from tariffs (and preferential exemptions for favored firms) to export taxes and regulatory bullying.
But the clearest sign of the Trump administration’s turn toward state capitalism was taking a direct stake in—or negotiating a share of the profits from—nearly a dozen companies. Trump has embraced state capitalism in a way that few of his predecessors have, but which is textbook for state intervention in countries such as China and Russia. It’s a trend that only seems poised to accelerate in 2026.
Here’s a list of companies into which Trump is funneling billions of taxpayer dollars.
In the most recent addition to this list, the Trump administration announced in January that it was taking a $150 million equity stake in a Louisiana-based gallium company called Atlantic Alumina Co., or ATALCO.
Gallium, an obscure yet vital chipmaking input, has been a top concern of Washington’s since China imposed export restrictions on the metal a