In One Area, Trump Is Praised on the Left, Bashed on the Right

A strange dynamic is playing out in regard to President Trump's new moves on the economy—he and liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders are fully in sync. After the Vermont independent backed the idea of the US acquiring a stake in Intel and other chipmakers, Reuters observed that the "unusual alignment between Sanders and President Trump on government ownership stakes in private companies highlights a marked shift by Trump toward policies of state intervention in the economy that are typically associated with the left." And the Intel deal is far from a one-off:

• Trump previously struck a deal with Nvidia and other firms that gives the US a 15% cut of the revenue from chip sales to China. And his administration received a "golden share" of Nippon Steel to allow the company to take over US Steel. The latter allows the US to influence decisions.
• Expect more such deals: "I want to try and get as much as I can," Trump told reporters Monday when discussing the Intel plan. "I hope I'm going to have many more cases like it."

• The shift has prompted Axios to christen Trump the "chairman of all boards," noting that the president is aggressively exerting his influence on all levels of the private sector, from business to sports to entertainment companies. "Those with insight into his strategy say it's anything but arbitrary—there's a mold-breaking calculus at play, they say, centered on national security and American competitiveness," writes Ben Berkowitz.
• But it comes with risk: "I think what we're seeing is less a strategic, thoughtful shift toward state capitalism and more an opportunistic display of corporate shakedowns," Michael R. Strain, an economist with the conservative American Enterprise Institute tells the New York Times. "Either way, this does create significant risks for the companies that are entering into these deals, and for the long-term prosperity of the American people."
• And it also comes with criticism from the right. "This is actual socialism happening by a Republican administration," conservative pundit Erick Erickson complained, per Mediaite. "You may be comfortable with socialism. You may decide you like socialism, because someone from the Trump administration wants socialism, but my God, people, what have we been fighting for for the last decade?"