U.S. President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Aug. 26, 2025 in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images<\/p>\n
It’s starting to feel like we’re in a game of Pac-Man, in which the U.S. government is the eponymous hungry yellow blob furiously chomping on everything in sight.<\/p>\n
The White House’s 10% stake in Intel<\/a> and revenue-sharing agreement<\/a> with Nvidia<\/a> and AMD<\/a> look like they’re just the start in a series of deals<\/a>, as President Donald Trump promised. On Tuesday, Commerce Secretary\u00a0Howard Lutnick\u00a0told CNBC that the Pentagon is having “a monstrous discussion” over whether to acquire equity stakes in firms such as Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n Likewise, Trump’s early assaults on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell<\/a> turned out to be just his opening salvo on the central bank. On Monday night stateside, the U.S. leader terminated Lisa Cook, a Fed governor, over allegations of mortgage fraud<\/a>. The next day, at a Cabinet meeting, Trump said he will “have a majority” of his nominees at the Fed, “so that’ll be great.”<\/p>\n Prior to Trump’s inauguration, analysts were upbeat about a looser regulatory environment that could facilitate more mergers and acquisitions. They probably weren’t thinking about the White House being the main deal-maker.<\/p>\n What you need to know todayAnd finally…<\/p>\n The Shanghai Stock Exchange on April 25, 2025.<\/p>\n Hector Retamal | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n