Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, not only defended the Trump administration’s move to use taxpayer money to buy a 10% stake in U.S. chip maker Intel—but also said more could follow.

"Okay, so we should expect the U.S. government to be taking more equity stakes in businesses around the country?" CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Hassett on Monday.

"It's possible. Yeah. That's absolutely right,” Hassett replied.

“I can really not see how anyone would think that's a bad thing, unless you thought that the government was then going to go in and run the company,” Hassett continued. “But these are going to be shares that don't have voting rights. The government's going to stay out of it."

President Donald Trump also crowed about the Intel move on Monday.

“I will make d

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