Several Republicans have criticized President Donald Trump’s recent corporate deals, with the 10% equity stake in Intel being the latest in a series of moves that Washington has made to acquire ownership or generate revenue from private companies. According to The Hill, several conservative senators and even former staffers from the first Trump administration are calling these moves a step towards socialism.
“If I was [sic] speaking to the president, I’d encourage him: It’s time to think twice,” former Vice President Mike Pence said to the publication. “State-owned enterprise is not the American way. Free enterprise is the American way.”
Intel has been struggling since 2024, having released a disastrous financial report in August of last year. Although the American chip maker has already received $2.2 billion in CHIPS Act funds, its financial situation suggests that it may struggle to meet the targets required to receive the balance of the nearly $ 8 billion grant awarded during the Biden administration. Things were made worse when the company’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, was dragged into a row over Cadence, which admitted to selling its products to banned Chinese entities while he was its chief executive.
Donald Marx: Seize the means of production! For my benefit.
“Seize the means of production by the pussy, for profit!”
— Fuhrer Donald Epstein
Or maybe it’s state capitalism. Like Norway does. But the GOP can’t tell the difference between socialism and a stick up their ass, even while they love to hate the former and hate to love the latter.
Honestly, I’m kind of surprised they didn’t call it communism or even stalinism. I don’t think most of them ever grew out of McCarthyism.
Having said that, isn’t state capitalism a form of socialism? It seems like if the U.S. government owned 100% of American companies, that would be entirely socialist. Is state capitalism a sliding scale between laissez-faire capitalism and full-on socialism?
I’m not trying to debate here. I’m trying sincerely to understand by definining terms.
State capitalism is where the state has taken the place of the capitalist; the extraction of surplus value is still intact, meaning it cannot be regarded as socialism.
Good to know. Thanks. If I understand correctly, that means no country to date has achieved socialism, but not for lack of trying in some cases.
no country to date has achieved socialism
Impossible when ‘stateless’ is one of the main features of socialism. There have been “regions” and groups that have achieved it - usually briefly as they are founded in times of hardship and revolution. Some examples I can think of: Makhno’s Free Territory, Paris commune, and the collectives during Spain’s civil war are some historical examples. The Zapatistas and Rojava are some contemporary ones.
Some would certainly say it is. I guess that’s a key difference between social democracy and democratic socialism. And the definition differs a lot within countries and even parties. There is no absolute definition of socialism and will never be.
Golf clap
I repeat…
Just imagine if Biden did this. Or, heaven forbid, Obama. Down to the exact letter.
Fox would scream ‘socialism’ so loud it would shatter windows.
Well rapublicans are screaming it. Not too loud, but it proves there are some with standards.
Not at Trump. They’re wringing hands and making suggestions, but you will never catch most Republicans placing blame on Trump for, well, his own policy decision.
As a random example, I know someone libertarian-minded who would normally be appalled by this, but is kinda shrugging this off as hysteria against Trump.
Same with cable pundits.
Every time trump does something his base doesn’t like, instead of getting mad at trump. They say “both sides are the same” and move on, as if he isn’t our president and doesn’t have the power to stop policies “both sides” are at fault for.
socialism is a different thing. This is communism.
nah, still fascism
Well, yes, but it’s also communism.
No, it’s not, liberal.
Also extortion
Yeah. But did you hear Kamala laugh.
