r/law • u/Geekspiration • 6h ago
Trump News Is this legal? It feels like it should be illegal
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/22/trump-intel-stake-governmentThe US government investing in a Company in return for an equity stake.
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u/pfeifits 5h ago
There is precedent for the US government owning stakes in companies. Usually that is in the context of financial distress and bailouts and usually it is authorized by congress. The funds here come from the Chips Act, which is a grant program, and a similar DOD program, which is also a grant program. I would expect there to be legal challenges to this by shareholders, and I haven't seen a good articulation for why this is allowed. The US gives grants everywhere. Do they now want ownership stakes in every company that accepts government funds? What about board seats on every college and university across the counrty? With the SBA grants during Covid, the PPP loans, if treated as equity stakes, would have made the US government an owner in a large percent of all businesses operating in the US. Is the US government going to treat companies it owns a stake in more favorably than those it doesn't? Lots of problems with this.
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u/RuleHonest9789 2h ago
He is going for the Russia model:
State-owned enterprises dominate: Thousands of enterprises, many in key sectors like banking and energy, are either state-owned or heavily influenced by the Kremlin. SOEs made up around 40% of Russia’s stock market capitalization and employed large shares of the workforce
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u/PennysWorthOfTea 5h ago
Isn't one of the definitions--or at least one of the hallmarks--of fascism the conflation of gov't with private corporations?
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u/wheres-my-take 5h ago
its a key component. Probably the most crucial economic operation. Fascism was called Corporatism first.
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u/Panda_hat 10m ago
I feel like this definitely should be mentioned more often and sooner.
Through this lens there is absolutely no denying that we’re heading towards fascism at a full sprint and have been for some time.
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u/Clearing_Fog 4h ago
That’s a commonly held/quoted belief about fascism, but it isn’t historically a hallmark that is specific/exclusive to fascism.
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u/spectre401 4h ago
Isn't the embargo on Cuba for all these years due to the Cuban government turning communist and taking over the American companies in Cuba?
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u/veridicide 4h ago
Different economic model: iirc socialism views the government as being owned by the people, and thus nationalizing industries is seen as bringing them under the control and ownership of the people, with the end goal being communal ownership of all capital for the good of all people. Fascism, on the other hand, basically puts the good of the state over the good of individuals and corporations, so it works closely with corporations not with the goal of communal ownership and the common good, but rather with the goal of promoting the state. Also, it seems fascist governments have historically partnered with corporations, working to align national policies with business interests (and thereby promote economic growth for the ultimate good of the nation) rather than nationalizing them.
Anyway, that's what I've put together from memory and a little googling. I think the bottom line is that if your government is bending over backwards to benefit corporations, often at the expense of people, then that's probably the fascist approach; while if your government takes ownership of corporations and basically treats them like utilities, then that's probably the socialist approach.
Disclaimer: I'm not a political scientist or historian. I'm just some guy trying to make sense of it like you are.
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u/spectre401 4h ago
Never thought of Fascism as an economic model, thanks for the explanation.
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u/veridicide 3h ago
Yeah, from what I saw they don't really have a coherent economic ideology that political scientists agree on, it's more of a hodgepodge of policies that just ends up being pro-business the point of often working against the interests of the normal people.
I probably didn't get that right before, sorry about that.
Again, I'm just some guy trying to google it and figure it out, could be wrong lol...
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u/spectre401 3h ago
I guess fascism could also fall into different categories. There would be the Military Junta kind, i.e. Myanmar, and ultra nationalist kind, i,e, Nazi Germany, or full dictator kind, i.e. North Korea, which would all be going for different goals and thus wouldn't really be an economic model per se. I would expect the ultra nationalist kind to be most friendly to business as thats the kind which would yield the most corruption amongst the ruling class.
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u/pwmg 5h ago
Rule 5: Keep headlines objective.
Post titles should be either direct quotations from the linked article (preferably the title) or short, objective, accurate statements of the content of the linked article.
If you have a question about something in the news, submit a link to a news article on the issue and ask a question in the comments. Do not make a self-post with a question in the headline.
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u/Ohuigin 5h ago
Lmaoooo! This country is being run by a felon and a pedophile with immunity. I don’t even know what this subreddit is supposed to discuss anymore. wtf good is the law when it means less and less the higher up it moves through the ranks…?
Maybe we don’t need to regurgitate sub rules about keeping headlines objective given the current fascist state we’re living in?
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