{"id":385067,"date":"2025-08-30T12:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T12:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/385067\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T12:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T12:01:12","slug":"chairman-trump-has-the-us-turned-its-back-on-free-market-capitalism-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/385067\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairman Trump: has the US turned its back on free-market capitalism? | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Ronald Reagan<\/a> became the first US president to address China\u2019s Great Hall of the People in 1984, he did not waste an opportunity to school his audience on the benefits of the American way.<\/p>\n

He boiled down his central economic ideology, and that of his Republican party \u2013 that governments should get out of the way, allow companies, industries and markets the space the thrive, without intervention \u2013 into a simple mantra: trust the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese three words are not only the heart and soul of American history, but the most powerful force for human progress in the world today,\u201d Reagan argued<\/a> in Beijing. \u201cThose who ignore this vital truth will condemn their countries to fall farther and farther behind in the world\u2019s competition for economic leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Chairman Mao Zedong<\/a>, founder of the People\u2019s Republic of China, had been fundamentally opposed to free markets and capitalism, Reagan argued that societies which enjoyed \u201cthe most spectacular progress\u201d were the ones where people had been \u201cpermitted to think for themselves, make economic decisions, and benefit from their own risks\u201d.<\/p>\n

What would Reagan make of a country that, in a matter of weeks, became the largest shareholder<\/a> in a microchip manufacturer; demanded a cut of firms\u2019 overseas sales<\/a> in exchange for export licenses; and fired a statistics official<\/a> after government data embarrassed its ruling party?<\/p>\n

In just the past week, senior government officials in the country have pushed to exert control over its central bank<\/a>; ordered<\/a> a tech giant to strike a deal with a supportive media conglomerate; and successfully urged a restaurant chain to reverse a rebrand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is not China<\/a>. It is the United States, under a Republican president, in 2025.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, rather than adhere to the principles of free markets, small government and unbound capitalism that his party championed for a generation, is making his influence felt in every corner of corporate America. The commander-in-chief is also chairman of the economy.<\/p>\n

Chairman Trump secured a \u201cgolden share\u201d in US Steel<\/a> while approving Nippon Steel\u2019s controversial $14.9bn takeover of the steelworks, and says South Korea will provide $350bn for investments \u201cowned and controlled by the United States, and selected by myself, as President\u201d, as part of a trade deal<\/a> he brokered.<\/p>\n

He converted nearly $9bn in grants for Intel into a 10% stake in the chipmaker<\/a> \u2013 reportedly<\/a> in exchange for his support, after publicly demanding its CEO resign \u2013 and top Trump officials have suggested more companies are in their sights.<\/p>\n

Chairman Trump is challenging the independence of the Federal Reserve<\/a> and trying to obtain a majority on the central bank\u2019s board of governors. This week, he even tried to fire one<\/a> over unconfirmed claims of mortgage fraud, made by an ally inside his administration.<\/p>\n

He also fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a> hours after official data revealed a sharp slowdown in jobs growth on his watch, claiming without evidence that the numbers had been \u201crigged\u201d (he tapped an ardent supporter<\/a> to replace her).<\/p>\n

Rather than allow privately owned companies to go about their business, without the involvement of public officials and political leaders, Chairman Trump routinely intervenes.<\/p>\n

Under a \u201clittle deal\u201d he struck with Nvidia<\/a>, the world\u2019s most highly valued company will provide 15% of certain chip sales in China. Apple, threatened with steep tariffs<\/a> by the president, came to the White House bearing gifts<\/a>: $100bn in further US investment, and a souvenir with a 24-karat gold base.<\/p>\n

No issue is too small for Chairman Trump. He waded into the debate over the mid-sized casual-dining chain Cracker Barrel\u2019s changed logo earlier this week, dispatching<\/a> his deputy chief of staff to speak with the firm and ultimately helping convince it to reverse the decision<\/a> \u2013 weeks after pushing Coca-Cola to launch a drink with cane sugar<\/a>, rather than corn syrup.<\/p>\n

All the while, Trump\u2019s Republican party continues to accuse political opponents of trying to erode capitalism, pursuing socialism and threatening to undermine free markets. The president\u2019s supporters and officials deny his policies do any such thing.<\/p>\n

A proposal by Zohran Mamdani, Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, to create five city-owned grocery stores, is \u201cstraight out of the Marxist playbook\u201d, according to the Republican congressman Mike Lawler. \u201cNew Yorkers deserve solutions, not socialist fantasies that have failed spectacularly every time they\u2019ve been tried,\u201d Lawler argued<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Lawler did not respond to a request for comment <\/strong>on whether some of Trump\u2019s policies could be described in similar terms. But asked about conservative criticism of the Intel deal on Wednesday, Kevin Hassett, director of the White House national economic council, told CNN: \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other rightwingers are not so sure. The Kentucky senator Rand Paul is among the most prominent Republicans to suggest otherwise. \u201cIf socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn\u2019t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?\u201d he asked<\/a> on X earlier this month. \u201cTerrible idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson went further. \u201cYou can\u2019t just be against socialism when the left does it,\u201d he said last week. \u201cIf you\u2019re not against socialism overall, guess what? You\u2019re going to get socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you support socialism\u201d, Erickson added, \u201capparently Donald Trump is your guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such arguments miss the point, according to Tad DeHaven, an economic and fiscal policy analyst for the libertarian Cato Institute. There\u2019s no little gold book for Trump to rival Mao\u2019s little red one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so focused on isms: communism, socialism \u2026 and they\u2019re not,\u201d he said of the administration. \u201cThere\u2019s no strategic plan here. There\u2019s no guiding philosophy, other than Donald Trump\u2019s in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s exercising power. Donald Trump doesn\u2019t care about institutions, or constraints, or checks and balances. Donald Trump\u2019s just going to do what Donald Trump wants to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Call it Trumpalism. Economic ideologies are typically built on principles, from the free market foundations of capitalism to the socialist pillars of collective ownership and control. But this one \u2013 crafted by a man who rarely allows fundamental long-term positions to prevent him from saying, or doing, what he wants in the short term \u2013 is different.<\/p>\n

Back in 2008, with the US auto industry on the brink, Trump said<\/a> the federal government \u201cshould stand behind\u201d the carmakers \u201c100%\u201d. Come 2015, however, this firm stance had dissolved. \u201cYou could have let it go bankrupt, frankly, and rebuilt itself \u2026 or you could have done it the way it went,\u201d he said<\/a> of the auto industry. \u201cEither way would have been acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lack of a position on whether or not the federal government should have taken stakes in manufacturers, or allowed them to go bankrupt, was an early example of Trumpalism. Ideology takes a backseat to the instincts and impulses of a domineering chairman, from one week to the next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just scattershot, it\u2019s day by day,\u201d DeHaven said. \u201cThere\u2019s no plan. There\u2019s no strategy. It\u2019s just power and leverage, and however they can obtain it for the boss, however the boss himself can obtain it. That is the modus operandi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever happened to trust the people? \u201cYou can argue exactly as to when,\u201d said DeHaven, \u201cbut the Republican party that I grew up with \u2013 the Reagan Republicans<\/a> \u2013 that party is dead and buried\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Ronald Reagan became the first US president to address China\u2019s Great Hall of the People in 1984,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-385067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115117613546171530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}