The Golden Share is Fool’s Gold
Trump didn’t save U.S. Steel, he seized it. Worse than capitalism, it’s command control in a MAGA wrapper.
When Donald Trump struck a deal to approve the $14.9 billion sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel, most headlines focused on the foreign acquisition itself. But buried inside the transaction was something far more consequential, not just for steel, but for the future of American capitalism: the “golden share.”
This obscure mechanism grants the President of the United States direct governance control over a private corporation. Not regulatory oversight. Not a temporary bailout provision. Actual operational authority, including veto power over board appointments, job relocations, and even the name of the company. U.S. Steel cannot move its headquarters, shift production overseas, or rebrand without Donald Trump’s personal approval. The MAGA fanatics who rail against socialism just handed Trump a permanent controlling stake in a private company, no investment, no accountability, just power. It’s crony authoritarianism in a red, white, and blue wrapper.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hailed the move as a masterstroke, invoking The Art of the Deal. But this deal is more artful than art, and it’s a warning.
The golden share, described by Lutnick as “perpetual,” puts the U.S. government, under Trump, in the steel business for good. Future presidents may inherit this authority, or not, the Commerce Department won’t say. The full agreement hasn’t been released, and neither Nippon nor U.S. Steel has provided the public or the United Steelworkers union with the complete terms.
What we do know is this: Trump used the power of the presidency to force a foreign company to give him, and possibly every president after him, unprecedented corporate control, without investing a dime and without the consent of Congress or the public.
If this sounds familiar, it should. This is the same model used by the Chinese Communist Party. In recent years, China has inserted state officials onto the boards of private firms and acquired “golden shares” to control tech companies without technically owning them. Now, Trump has imported that model to American soil with full executive authority and zero democratic debate.
This isn’t just about steel, it’s a prototype. Lutnick and others in Trump’s circle have already floated the same structure for TikTok. Imagine a golden share in a social media giant, not to protect users’ data, but to control content, manipulate speech, or intimidate competitors. Imagine applying this to automakers, defense contractors, or even banks. The message is clear: build a successful business, and your biggest competitor might not be a foreign rival, it might be the White House.
American steelmakers like Nucor and Steel Dynamics now face a competitor whose board includes the President of the United States, who also happens to oversee their safety regulators, tariff policies, and antitrust enforcement. If they fall out of favor with the regime, or refuse to play ball, how long before the inspections start, the permits stall, the penalties mount?
Even labor, traditionally a cornerstone of Trump’s rustbelt messaging, is furious. The United Steelworkers union, still locked out of the details, expressed “deep disappointment” at a process that empowered a foreign conglomerate and the federal executive while sidelining the workers who built the company. Meanwhile, Nippon Steel has been repeatedly accused of dumping cheap steel into global markets, including by Trump’s own Commerce Department just weeks ago.
So what exactly did America get in this deal? No stock, nor profit, nor dividends. Just veto power over a privatized shell that now wears a flag pin. The U.S. taxpayer doesn’t even get a seat at the table, just the illusion of sovereignty, managed by the same man who once said, “I alone can fix it.”
This is state-sponsored corporatism with a golden leash long enough to strangle competitors, short enough to keep the press releases patriotic.
Trump’s golden share is a soft coup against free enterprise. It signals to every CEO, union, and investor in the country: align with the ruling regime, or risk being outmaneuvered by a president who sees your company not as a business, but as a bargaining chip.
In Trump’s second term, the line between public power and private interest isn’t blurred, it’s weaponized.
This is appalling enough for a steel producer - with Tik Tok or any other major social media platform, it’s a straight road to central government tyranny over free speech.
Where are the Republican voices condemning “socialism” when it’s their guys who are orchestrating it?
I hadn’t made the connection with the Chinese government’s strategy for control. Thank you for that. I would say that although this is superficially similar to socialism, its motivation is so remote from the aims of what’s typically called socialism that I feel there needs to be a new term for it. It’s a type of coercive nationalization that’s far more disturbing.