We are not anywhere near Kansas anymore. Nor are we in a capitalist system recognizable to anyone who has ever believed in open markets, fair competition, or the separation of business and state. With a sleight of hand cloaked in nationalist bravado, Donald Trump has done what no modern president has dared. He has inserted the federal government directly into the boardroom of a private American company, without a financial crisis to justify it, without congressional debate, and without any upside to the American taxpayer.
Welcome to the new face of statism, American style. Statism is the belief that the government should have substantial centralized control over economic and social policy. It often emerges when the state sees itself not just as a regulator of private enterprise, but as a participant, or even a competitor. While some forms of statism can exist within democracies, when unchecked it becomes a slippery slope toward authoritarian governance in economic life.
This is not the democratic socialism of Europe where public ownership funds schools and healthcare. Not the strategic nationalism of Rooseveltian war-time mobilization. No, this is something else. This is executive statism where the power of the state is deployed not for the public good but for political optics.
The deal in question? Nippon Steel, a Japanese company, has been trying to buy U.S. Steel for years. The $14 billion acquisition was once opposed by both Biden and Trump. Now, in a whiplash reversal, Trump has approved it, but only after inserting what’s called a “golden share” into the deal. That golden share gives the U.S. government governance control over critical aspects of U.S. Steel’s operations: executive leadership, production location, employment decisions, and more. This is not equity. This is not a bailout. This is control without investment.
Let that sink in: the federal government now has a direct decision-making role in a private steel company. And not just any company but one that competes directly with other American firms like Nucor and Steel Dynamics. The U.S. government has essentially entered the steel business, not as a regulator, but as a market participant. And this, mind you, under a Republican president who claims to stand for free enterprise.
What kind of signal does this send to the rest of the American economy? That if you grow too large, too essential, or too politically symbolic, you may wake up one day to find your biggest competitor isn’t China or Japan but your own government. And not in the name of protecting consumers or preserving national security but in the name of a political theater that confuses power with policy.
There was no financial emergency. No systemic collapse. No pandemic-era justification. Unlike the auto and bank bailouts of 2008, this was not a government stepping in to save the system. This was a government inserting itself into the system and rewriting the rules of engagement because it could.
The United Steelworkers union is livid, and rightly so. Trump did not secure more union power or better worker protections. He secured a seat at the boardroom table for himself and future presidents, regardless of party, regardless of public mandate. And worst of all, the golden share is permanent. It cannot be sold or undone without an act of Congress. This is a thumb on the scale of capitalism, pressed down by the same hand that signs executive orders.
We’ve seen this kind of entanglement before. Just not here. In China where the Communist Party inserts regulators into private tech firms. In Russia where oligarchs know their survival depends on pleasing the Kremlin. This isn’t capitalism. This isn’t socialism. This is something far more dangerous. It’s a hybridized system where state power and corporate influence feed off each other in a closed loop free from transparency or checks.
And now the same playbook may be used on TikTok. Instead of forcing a sale or banning it outright, Trump is rumored to be pursuing a similar golden share arrangement allowing Chinese ownership to persist while the U.S. claims oversight. It’s a policy that sounds tough but acts weak. A model that projects power while sacrificing sovereignty.
This is not how you run a democracy. This is not how you regulate a market. And this is not how you serve the people.
The irony of course is that Trump supporters will see this as a win. Another example of the great negotiator extracting concessions from foreign powers. But it is no win. It is, at best, fool’s gold, a shining distraction masking a dangerous precedent. At worst it is a blueprint for state-corporate collusion that undermines both liberty and enterprise.
If we are to remain a nation of free markets and free people we must reject this model. Congress should act immediately to unwind this golden share and prevent similar arrangements in the future. Because once the state becomes your competitor, your regulator, and your silent partner, the game is already lost.
What Trump has done is not dealmaking. It is a declaration that executive power now reaches beyond policy and into ownership. And that, my friends, is statism by stealth. We will rue the day we let it happen.
Disclaimer: Jim Powers writes opinion columns. The views expressed in this editorial are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Polk County Publishing Company or its affiliates. In the interest of transparency, I am politically Left Libertarian.
