Donald Trump engages in ad hoc agreements with individual companies and governments to expand his power. Some observers have described these actions as a new “economic nationalism”—but that term fails to explain what makes this administration’s decision-making unique.
industrial policy
Posted inEconomic Policy
How Do We Rebuild After Trump?
Many Trump critics are focused on what he is doing to our basic democratic compact. But there’s a reason that all the presidents who led us through our worst previous crises also had an aggressive program of reform—including public provision and ownership.
Posted inEconomic Policy
More State (or Is It Just Trump?) Capitalism
Last year, financier Scott Bessent excoriated the Biden administration for its revival of industrial policy. Now as Trump’s Treasury secretary, he the government would be expanding investments in companies in crucial economic sectors.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
America’s Greatest Mistake
This article appears in the October 2025 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here. The World’s Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (And What Would Make It Right) By David J. Lynch PublicAffairs For a time, globalization was synonymous with utopia: the untrammeled flow of capital across borders, new markets waiting to be opened, the growth of developing […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Trump Deal Lets Intel Move Factories Overseas, Sen. Warren Explains
In a letter to the Commerce Department, Warren blasts the actual deal between the Trump administration and Intel, even as she supports the concept of equity stakes.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Judge the Actually Existing Trump Economy, Not the Theory
Equity stakes, loophole closures, and protecting domestic industries might make sense in someone else’s hands. Not from a president with no strategy or plan.
Posted inTAP
What State Capitalism Can Do—and What It Can’t
Today on TAP: Trump’s version is a joke. But even our version would have limited benefits.
Posted inEconomic Policy
When L’État C’est Trump, the U.S. Goes in for State Capitalism
It’s Trump, not Mamdani, who’s having government take over businesses.
Posted inTAP
The NIH Funding Wars
Today on TAP: Are Republican senators more loyal to Trump, or to their home-state economies?
Posted inTAP
Another Trump Sellout to China and Big Tech
Today on TAP: The administration reverses long-standing controls on sales of advanced AI chips to Beijing.
