Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 08/26/2025 6:37:00 AM PDT by Red Badger
Key Points
Trump administration military leaders are “thinking about” whether the U.S. should acquire equity stakes in top defense contractors, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
Lockheed Martin, which makes most of its revenue from federal contracts, is “basically an arm of the U.S. government,” he said.
Lutnick’s remarks on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” came days after the U.S. government acquired 10% of Intel stock in a roughly $9 billion deal.
===============================================================================
Trump administration military leaders are “thinking about” whether the U.S. should acquire equity stakes in top 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 government’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,” he added.
“These guys are on it and they’re thinking about it.”
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 .
President Donald 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.”
Lutnick said Friday that the agreement Trump struck with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan “strengthens U.S. leadership in semiconductors, which will both grow our economy and help secure America’s technological edge.”
But the move has drawn heated criticism — including from some conservatives, who warn that Trump’s action cuts against free-market principles and poses risks for both Intel and the economy.
“The most immediate risk is that Intel’s decisions will increasingly be driven by political rather than commercial considerations,” economist Scott Lincicome of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wrote in an X post, “If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?”
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Don’t trust Lutnick and don’t like this.
The concern that assuming, in the future, Democrats / the woke left return to power - having Fed.gov ownership in multiple strategic businesses just becomes a door for leftist social-engineering, DEI and corruption.
Too many complications; violates too many economic principles.
Just a bad idea.
I think this is really an interesting topic. Eisenhower warned us about the Military Industrial Complex and we have seen various defense contractors enrich themselves while delivering some poor products. But the US needs shipbuilding, and plane manufacturing, and all the rest, so the government has to put up with some bad behavior (”the company needs to be profitable”) and we sometimes award contracts to the second-best bidder (”we need to keep them in business”).
I sometimes think that Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon and the rest of them should be shown the door entirely. Bring all defense work in-house to the government. Build the things right without struggling to make big profits for stockholders and executives. I think we would have better weapons for less money.
But I suspect that’s not going to be a popular idea.
Yup. Seems like it would raise hell with any bidding process.
Yep, kind of like what happened under Obama and Biden,,,,only MUCH WORSE!
In particular, the Green New Deal scams, climate change scams, etc
Government ownership of the means of production. Whether the stake is large or small, not a good idea.
Not a good idea at all.
I know people are against this, as I generally am, but to look at it in a vacuum is to miss the point.
This should be a “canary in the coal mine” for us indicating how precarious and dangerous is our outsourcing of key elements of defense contracting to Communist China (and elsewhere) is that we even consider these actions, never mind do them as we did with the semiconductor business with Intel recently.
I heard Trump mention ship building to the South Korean President in their meeting, and how he wants to encourage them to come to the US to build ships, and we desperately need to expand our shipbuilding capabilities...but we have to have a workforce to do that.
Just an example. This is how serious our manufacturing shortcomings are, and defense manufacturing is a serious part of that.
> Bring all defense work in-house to the government. <
Your argument is interesting, and has some merit. But the government can rarely do anything efficiently. Too much red tape, and not enough incentive to get things right.
Mess up while working in private industry, and you run the real risk of getting fired. Mess up while working for the government, and eh, so what?
First intel. Now defense. I am not comfortable with this.
Defense contractors see’s risk of kickback loss ahead and who to offer pay offs go to.
I’m not wild about this govt buying into private enterprise. Its not that I don’t trust Trump but what if another Obama gets into office?
People love to scream about how Trump is a fascist. They are usually showing their ignorance, but this is quite literally the definition of fascist. No good will come from this.
Agreed. If the democrats get back in office, they will use this precedent on STEROIDS!
Like Bush and his Patriot Act and creating the Dept. of Homeland Security. A dubious national security argument that only winds up diminishing freedom in the future.
How Soviet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.