One of the areas where I have most often disagreed with President Trump — especially during this second term — is economic policy.

It’s not the actions in that arena that grab the most headlines, either; not his never-ending quest to take personal control over monetary policy nor his endless tariff threats.

Rather, it’s a more nuanced area that has generated less media coverage: his constant, entirely unnecessary insertion of the federal government into the private market, including by taking direct government stakes in private companies.

To be clear, the federal government taking an ownership stake in private companies is not a mechanism created by Trump. During the 2008 financial crisis, the federal government took ownership stakes in General Motors, Chrysler and the financial services firm American International Group.

While the first two bailouts and ownership stakes were more well known, the bailout and ownership stake in AIG was the largest in American history. Although I was opposed to these bailouts and ownership stakes at the time, at least there was an argument that they were warranted, since there was a crisis.

If any of those bailouts hadn’t occurred, the damage to the economy could have been more severe — and the government did eventually sell its stakes in AIG at a profit. An exception was the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which haven’t yet been resolved, but both were initially established by the government, so they’re in a slightly different category.

Before that, there had been various other government insertions into the private market over the years. During the Great Depression, the government took stakes in many firms of various types; those stakes were mostly sold back to private owners. During World War I, the government nationalized the railroads and took control of most commercial maritime shipping; most of those stakes were re-privatized later as well. One can readily see the common through lines in most of these examples: they were during major crises and were viewed as temporary, extreme measures.

Trump, however, has a different view of the appropriate relationship between the federal government and private corporations. In August of last year, the federal government announced that it had acquired a 10% stake in Intel, the chip designer and manufacturer. The government simply bought a stake in the company, ensuring control over its production as microchips increasingly become a national security asset.

Earlier that year, the federal government had acquired a “golden share” in U.S. Steel in exchange for the president being allowed to appoint board members, investments into its U.S. operations and other restrictions on company operations — all in exchange for allowing Nippon Steel to acquire the company. 

Neither of these companies were in danger of going bankrupt, and they didn’t need a bailout. There wasn’t any earth-shattering economic crisis underway, either in the U.S. or globally. We weren’t at war. In both cases, Trump simply saw an opportunity to take greater control over a private corporation and took the opportunity to do so.

As with other actions, Trump took measures that had been considered emergency powers and used them under routine circumstances. U.S. Steel and Intel aren’t the only examples, either. They’re just the largest and most publicly well-known ones. 

It should come as no surprise to you, dear reader, that many of these deals involve companies related to rare earth minerals (the same reason Trump keeps eyeing Greenland) and defense. The Commerce Department acquired a stake in USA Rare Earth in exchange for a loan. The Department of Defense bought $400 million worth of stock in MP Materials, becoming its largest shareholder, as well as around $35 million of stock in Trilogy Metals Inc., and the Department of Energy increased its stake in Lithium Americas, now owning 5% of the company.

Aside from ideological opposition as a supporter of free markets — something the GOP used to believe in — it’s concerning that Trump was able to strike these deals on his own. Even if the current Congress would have simply rubber-stamped Trump’s decisions, all of these deals should’ve been subject to votes.

Just as with war powers, Congress has essentially ceded its authority over fiscal policy to the executive branch. Congress ought to pass a law requiring congressional approval for federal ownership of any stake in private companies. While such a law wouldn’t undo any of these deals, it would at least prevent any new ones — and prevent future presidents from expanding this even further.