With “Trumpalism,” have the United States turned its back on free-market capitalism?

Once, Republicans believed governments should step aside. Today, however, Trump is making his influence felt in every corner of the American economy.

By Callum Jones (The Guardian)*

When Ronald Reagan became the first United States president to address the Great Hall of the People in China in 1984, he missed no chance to explain to his audience the benefits of the American way of life. He summed up his core economic ideology and that of his Republican Party — that governments should step aside and leave companies, industries and markets room to prosper without interference — in a simple mantra: trust the people. Indeed, while President Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, had fundamentally opposed free markets and capitalism, Reagan argued that the societies enjoying the “most spectacular progress” were those in which people had been “allowed to think for themselves, make economic decisions and reap the rewards of their risks”.

What would Reagan have made of a country that, in the space of a few weeks, became the largest shareholder in a microchip maker, demanded that companies cut overseas sales in exchange for export licenses, and fired an official at the statistics office after government data embarrassed the party in power? In just the past week, senior government officials in the country have pressed to exert control over the central bank, ordered a technology giant to strike a deal with a media conglomerate on terms favorable to them; and successfully pushed a restaurant chain to reverse a rebrand.

No, this is not China, but the United States under a Republican president in 2025. Donald Trump, rather than adhering to the principles of free markets — limited government and unrestrained capitalism — that his party has championed for a generation, is making his influence felt in every corner of corporate America. Trump has secured a “golden share” in US Steel, while approving the controversial $14.9 billion takeover of the steelmaker by Nippon Steel, and he says South Korea will provide $350 billion for investments “owned and controlled by the United States, and selected by me, as President,” as part of a trade deal he helped broker.

What’s more, Trump has turned nearly $9 billion in grants for Intel into a 10% stake in the chipmaker — reportedly in return for his backing, after publicly calling for its CEO to resign — and senior Trump officials have hinted that other companies are in their sights. Not content with that, President Trump is challenging the Federal Reserve’s independence and seeking a majority on the central bank’s board. This week, he even tried to fire one of its governors over unconfirmed allegations of mortgage fraud, raised by an ally inside his administration.

Again, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics hours after official data revealed a sharp slowdown in job growth under his watch, claiming without evidence that the figures had been “rigged” (he picked one of his fervent supporters to replace her). Rather than allowing private companies to carry on with their business without the involvement of public officials and political leaders, President Trump intervenes regularly. Under a “small deal” he struck with Nvidia, the world’s most highly valued company will hand over 15% of certain chip sales in China. Apple, threatened by the president with steep tariffs, turned up at the White House bearing gifts: $100 billion in additional U.S. investment and a souvenir with a 24-carat gold base.

No issue is too small for President Trump. Earlier this week, Trump weighed in on the debate over the new logo for mid-sized casual dining chain Cracker Barrel, sending his deputy chief of staff to speak with the company and, ultimately, helping persuade it to reverse the decision, weeks after pushing Coca-Cola to launch a drink made with cane sugar rather than corn syrup. Meanwhile, Trump’s Republican Party continues to accuse political opponents of trying to erode capitalism, pursue socialism and threaten to undermine the free market. The proposal by Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York, to create five city-owned supermarkets, is “straight out of the Marxist playbook,” according to Republican congressman Mike Lawler. “New Yorkers deserve solutions, not socialist fantasies that have failed miserably every time they’ve been tried,” Lawler argued last month. Kentucky senator Rand Paul is among the most prominent Republicans to suggest otherwise. “If in socialism it is the government that owns the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning a part of Intel be a step toward socialism?”

Call it Trumpalism. Economic ideologies are usually built on principles, from the free-market foundations of capitalism to the socialist pillars of collective ownership and control. But this one — fashioned by a man who rarely lets long-term core beliefs stop him from saying or doing what he wants in the short term — is different. His lack of a position on whether the federal government should have taken stakes in manufacturing companies or let them fail was an early example of trumpalism. Ideology takes a back seat to the instincts and impulses of an authoritarian president, from one week to the next. The Republican Party American citizens grew up with — the Reagan Republicans — is dead and buried with Trump.

* Edited, translated and laid out from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/30/chairman-trump-us-economy