Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
For those who might not remember, “National Socialism” was the political ideology of the Nazis movement during the 1933-1945 period. It was based on a belief in antisemitism, Social Darwinism and that Germany needed to expand by controlling more of eastern Europe.
With regard to the economy, as a recent Columbia University study reports:
“…. once Hitler took power, the National Socialist government privatized rather than nationalized financial, banking, and heavy industries, eviscerated labor organizing, and enabled the formation of goliath corporate monopolies, such as the I.G. Farben and the Krupp works, that operated freely but under the thumb of the Nazi state.”
It adds, “In effect, Nazi leaders put in place a centralized war economy but allowed private enterprise to do its bidding. As a centralized form of capitalism that included both state planning and private enterprise ….”
The White House reports – in an undated post — that total “U.S. and Foreign Investments” are $10.7 trillion to both independent countries (e.g., UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia) and private companies (e.g., Apple, Amazon, AT&T and many, many others).
On his Substack post on June 15, 2026, the economist Robert Reich identified Pres. Trump’s economic policies as “national socialism.” As he wrote, “Trump’s national socialism is concentrating ever more power in Trump’s hands. A whole new range of decisions is being made about the U.S. economy but without any congressional oversight or public knowledge.”
Reich then added, “Trump’s national socialism is making fortunes for a small group of top executives who were already fabulously wealthy, while the democratic socialists in the Democratic Party want to tax the wealthy to provide funds for better schools, better wages, and healthcare for all.”
The process of corporate nationalization evolved over the last nearly two decades. In 2008, Pres. George W. Bush signed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry in the face of what was dubbed the “Great Recession.”
In 2009, the Obama administration directly intervened in the auto industry through the Automotive Industry Financing Program (AIFP), investing approximately $80 billion into the auto industry, including General Motors and Stellantis (i.e., Chrysler).
Reich stresses that the Trump 2.0 regime has escalated federal investment in – and equity ownership of – traditionally private corporations. He points out that in 2025 “the U.S. government converted $9 billion in federal grants to Intel into a 10 percent stake in the company, thereby becoming Intel’s single largest shareholder.”
Also in 2025, it signed off on Japan’s Nippon Steel acquisition of U.S. Steel for $15 billion. Terms of the agreement include a “golden share” arrangement under which the U.S. government is to have certain rights with respect to USS, including those “relating to governance, domestic production and trade matters.”
Reich notes that the U.S. “invested” $400 million in MP Materials in 2025, the only U.S.-based rare earth miner, becoming its largest shareholder. The U.S. secured 15 percent of preferred stock.
In 2026, the AI chip manufacturer Nvidia got approval from Trump to sell its H200 AI chip to China. To secure the deal, “after agreeing to two conditions. First, the United States government would get 25 percent of all profits from Nvidia’s sales in China. Second, Nvidia would invest $5 billion in Intel and buy its custom data center chips.”
In April 2026, the Dept. of Defense established the “Economic Defense Unit.” Its newly appointed leader, Def. Sec. Steve Feinberg, announced the Unit’s role is:
“… to coordinate and deliberate application of economic tools including capital, procurement, policy, trade, tariffs, regulatory authorities, export controls, and other potential economic activities to expand the United States’ economic advantage by deterring, denying, disrupting, and helping to defeat adversaries through economic means.”
And in June, the Dept. of Energy announced the establishment of a $17.5 billion “American Nuclear Supply Chain Loans” program for Westinghouse and local utility and energy companies to build 10 large-scale commercial nuclear reactors across the country.
(Senate Bill S. 4783, National Defense Authorization Act for 2027, is currently stalled in Congress. However, as Eric Boehm notes, it includes “a provision to create a new slush fund within the U.S. Treasury for the purpose of buying stakes in more private businesses.”)
Arnab Datta, of Employ America, points out, “Not since the Great Depression has the government taken ownership stakes in private corporations at such scale and speed, and in this case, without explicit Congressional authorization.”
The Council on Foreign Relations further clarifies this development. “Since January 2025,” it states, “the U.S. government has announced investments worth $26.7 billion across thirty deals involving direct ownership, broadening a toolkit that has traditionally focused on grants, loans, and tax incentives.” It detailed 30 federal investments on what it calls “CFR’s U.S. Government Deal Tracker.” Among the investment methods are equity, warrants, loans and what are identified as “Golden Shares,” “Offtakes” and “Price Floors.”
Charles Wessner, of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, distinguishes the types of investment:
“An equity stake represents ownership in a company and entitlement to the company’s future profits. Unlike loans that must be repaid or grants which in principle are given freely ….”
He also insists:
“… the Trump administration’s decision to take an equity stake in private companies deemed strategic is not a bailout but a proactive investment to secure, or at least support, U.S. capabilities in critical sectors and prevent further reliance on supply chains anchored in China.”
Adding to this, the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), a conservative think tank, identified this development as the “Portfolio State”. It claims this development “is neither command-and-control nor laissez-faire, but a hybrid architecture: public capital acquiring minority stakes to secure supply chains, shape market outcomes, and anchor domestic capacity.”
Mayer Brown, a New York-based corporate law firm, is far more cautious regrading this development. It warns, “This is not an episodic intervention. It instead reflects a structural shift in how the federal government is managing supply-chain risk—and it has direct consequences for how mining and energy transactions are structured, financed and exited.”
Going further, it points out: “Equity and equity-linked instruments reshape ownership dynamics. Equity investments affect economic terms and governance rights on day one, while dilution from the conversion or exercise of convertible or equity-linked instruments can further alter governance thresholds, supermajority voting mechanics and board composition.”
In conclusion, as Robert Reich warned, “This isn’t capitalism, folks. It’s government becoming the major shareholder of the biggest chip-making in America ….” Its Trump’s 21st century national socialism.
