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Corporate America's Newest Activist Investor: Donald Trump
NYT - Gift LinkCorporate America has built up defenses against the likes of Carl Icahn, Nelson Peltz and other corporate raiders who have rattled the cages of chief executives, pushing for higher stock prices. Now companies have a new investor to worry about: the president of the United States.
President Trump has inserted the government into U.S. companies in extraordinary ways, including taking a stake in U.S. Steel and pushing for a cut of Nvidia’s and Advanced Micro Devices’ revenue from China. Last month, the Pentagon said it was taking a 15 percent stake in MP Materials, a large American miner of rare earths.
And on Friday, Intel agreed to allow the U.S. government to take a 10 percent stake in its business, worth $8.9 billion.
These developments could herald a shift from America’s vaunted free-market system to one that resembles, at least in some corners, a form of state-managed capitalism more frequently seen in Europe and, to a different degree, China and Russia, say lawyers, bankers and academics steeped in the history of hostile takeovers and international business.
And the actions are sending Wall Street’s bankers and lawyers scrambling to help companies come up with a playbook to defend against or least find ways to mollify Mr. Trump.
President Trump has inserted the government into U.S. companies in extraordinary ways, including taking a stake in U.S. Steel and pushing for a cut of Nvidia’s and Advanced Micro Devices’ revenue from China. Last month, the Pentagon said it was taking a 15 percent stake in MP Materials, a large American miner of rare earths.
And on Friday, Intel agreed to allow the U.S. government to take a 10 percent stake in its business, worth $8.9 billion.
These developments could herald a shift from America’s vaunted free-market system to one that resembles, at least in some corners, a form of state-managed capitalism more frequently seen in Europe and, to a different degree, China and Russia, say lawyers, bankers and academics steeped in the history of hostile takeovers and international business.
And the actions are sending Wall Street’s bankers and lawyers scrambling to help companies come up with a playbook to defend against or least find ways to mollify Mr. Trump.
American corporations blinked b/c they thought in the short term and instead ended up giving Trump more power. Now their destiny is not their own.
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) 2025-08-25T02:58:23.039Z
Elite corporations where Donald Trump could NEVER have hoped to be invited for a partners’ lunch let alone collaboration are now subject to his will.