In August 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump took the unusual step of making the U.S. government one of the largest shareholders in a major American technology company by acquiring a 10 percent stake in Intel. While the deal sparked debate among economic and policy experts, critics — including conservatives who branded it a blatantly "socialist" policy — questioned the move. Trump countered that he "should have asked for more." On Friday, that claim faced a stark test: Intel shares plunged, slashing the Commerce Department's Intel holdings by more than $10 billion in a single day.

"I hope U.S. Treasury sold at the top," remarked Marc Short, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence, in a post on X. According to analysts, however, no Treasury sales have been disclosed — leaving American taxpayers apparently holding the bag. Intel shares dropped 28 percent on Friday alone, cutting the Commerce Department's 433-million-share stake by roughly $11 billion in a single session. The sudden collapse — triggered by a weak Q4 earnings and guidance report in which Chief Financial Officer Dave Zinsner warned that the company will not see positive cash flow next year — followed a month of steady downturn. Friday's plunge represented the company's biggest decline on record, surpassing even the infamous Dot-Com bubble burst that rocked the tech industry in the late 1990s. Because the government has not disclosed a sale, the reported loss reflects the reduced market value of its stake rather than a realized cash loss; the episode nonetheless shows how quickly public exposure to a single company's shares can change in value.

While the government's stake is still technically at a profit, the stock's price is fast approaching the original buy level. "Trump's investment in Intel is not looking quite so smart," wrote Telegraph financial columnist Matthew Lynn on X. Cato Institute economist Scott Lincicome offered a sharper assessment: "One of the many problems with the government's Intel stake — and Trump bragging about big stock gains over the summer — is that the 'gains' are an illusion: they're only realized when the government sells, but the government can't sell." Were the government to pull out, the resulting investor panic would destroy the company.

Trump's efforts in this regard represent a radical shift in U.S. market policy. The conservative American Enterprise Institute calls the strategy "venture socialism", warning that government investment will weaken targeted companies and result in the need for bailouts if they fail. The Wall Street Journal described the approach as "a hybrid between socialism and capitalism in which the state guides the decisions of nominally private enterprises," calling it "a sea change from the free market ethos the U.S. once embodied." A. Scott Bolden, a contributor to NewsNation, argued that these policies have not only undercut the GOP's conservative principles but expanded Trump's presidential powers in a manner that is "threatening our freedoms, interfering in businesses and the free market in an unprecedented manner."