Is the U.S. government’s taking a 10% stake in semiconductor maker Intel a “creative idea” that has “never been done before,” as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently told the press? Hardly. Governments have been nationalizing industries since governments have existed. In virtually every instance, the state takes power under the auspices of a national emergency. These days, of course, any inconvenience is a crisis in politics, and so President Donald Trump has decided to run the semiconductor industry.

It’s something of a quaint question these days to wonder under what constitutional authority a president can unilaterally buy into a private company with taxpayer funds. Surely if former President Joe Biden had “invested” in a major energy concern under the power of,

See Full Page