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Posted on 08/26/2025 7:50:08 AM PDT by DFG
Top officials at the Pentagon are “thinking about” whether the U.S. should acquire equity stakes in leading defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday.
The Cabinet secretary, in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” revealed the Defense Department’s interest in taking those stakes days after the U.S. government acquired 10% of Intel stock in a roughly $9 billion deal.
Lutnick was asked if the Trump administration would repeat that move with other companies that do business with the government.
“Oh there’s a monstrous discussion about defense,” Lutnick replied.
Lockheed, which makes most of its revenue from federal contracts, is “basically an arm of the U.S. government,” he said.
“But what’s the economics of that? I’m going to leave that to my Secretary of Defense and the deputy Secretary of Defense.”
“These guys are on it and they’re thinking about it,” he said.
Lutnick added that President Donald Trump is rethinking how the U.S. ought to finance its munitions and other defense capabilities.
“I tell you, the way it has been done has been a giveaway,” Lutnick claimed. His remark could suggest that the Trump administration is considering a major overhaul of Pentagon appropriations, which are approved annually by Congress.
Lockheed and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Lockheed is the world’s top defense company by revenue, according to DefenseNews’ 2024 list. Other top U.S. contractors include RTX , Northrop Grumman , General Dynamics and Boeing .
Trump’s move to take ownership of a chunk of Intel, an embattled chipmaker, is a major escalation in his efforts to achieve his economic goals by exerting more and more government control over the private economy.
Trump said Monday that he would make similar deals “all day long.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
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If any Freepers have an idea as to the reasoning behind this, please clue the rest of us in. Thanks
This is a bad idea.
The government spends billions on these chip fabs to prop them up. One example of a company in Austin TX and Malta NY is https://gf.com/. what do taxpayers get in return? NOTHING.
So I like the equity stake idea.
Hey, it worked out well with Government Motors.
If we’re worried about foreign nations or non-state actors investing in American corporations, we should just make laws regulating or prohibiting such.
This is poorly thought out, flat out wrong and a terrible precedent. I’d go as far as saying it’s un American. I don’t GAF what the creative reasoning behind it is.
Wait until dems/RevComs retake power and start “investing” in our private companies.
If big fat government contracts are okay I don’t see how getting stock is a big deal.
These places basically only exist because of Fed money in the first place , it’s not the free market.
Sounds fascist.
Yep, a loss of 10.5 BILLION. I'd argue that chips fabs and the auto industry are two different things. The government's actions prevented a potential economic collapse of the auto industry and its supply chain, which would have cost jobs and social service expenses.
The other side throws the word “fascist” around - stupidly, ignorant of the meaning.
With this, they could actual have the beginnings of making that point.
And when a Democrat becomes president again, there will be pressure to put a Hunter Biden on the board of directors and launch green initiatives, etc. Bad idea.
Competition for these contracts are basically nonexistent. And government stake in them would help that arrangement ment in any way.
My concern is how would government ownership of contractors affect procurement decisions?
For all I know, this is about gathering assets that will fund a privatized Social Security System in the future.
There are more important fish to fry than this story.
Trump is doing more than any president in my lifetime.
It sounds like Fascism, what Mussolini did. Fascism is not what Hitler did, it is when government controls private companies, and shares the profit, but not the losses. It is end stage societal Cancer, Stage 4.
100% IS fascist by definition.
It’s gonna take alot more than the $9B spent on Intel for sure.
Lockheed is massive.
Nationalizing our defense industries. We came close in WW2, never outright buying the companie’s shares, but the War Board dictated everything, including board members.
This move signals the US is anticipating war in the near future. In other words, directly buying into Defense Industries gives the war companies a promise in “ the full faith and credit “ backing by the government ( taxpayers) to keep them alive.
Do realize bankrupt nations ALWAYS nationalize everything, from Pension funds to Savings accounts to 401K’s. As the US slips further into the Debt “end game”,
I expect not bailouts, but nationalizing every form of Wealth- in very creative ways- for the good of all they will say.
+1
5.56mm
This is a poor workaround to Congress not doing their job. It is the dark side of Trump’s “get stuff done” style of governance. It is “a” solution to shoring up critical manufacturing but one that will lead to undesirable outcomes down the road.
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