'I Would Be the Greatest Communist in History'

“Communism’s easy to sell. I would be the greatest communist in history.”
—President Donald Trump, July 8, NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey

It was the second time in two months that Trump had made such a claim. The first time, on June 26, Trump was responding to a wave of democratic socialist victories in primary elections in New York City, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

Trump, who in Ankara added that communism has “never worked,” was clearly joking. But the remark was striking, because the second Trump administration has embraced a mild version of communism by taking ownership stakes in the means of production.

Since 2025, the Trump administration has acquired federal stakes in private companies such as Intel, the rare earth minerals firm MP Materials, and U.S. Steel. In the last case, the government took a “golden share,” giving it veto power over major decisions, in exchange for approving Nippon Steel’s acquisition of the company.

In October 2025, the government took a 5 percent stake in the Canadian mining firm Lithium Americas and a 5 percent stake in its lithium mining project in Nevada. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the deal as “a creative solution” to “our nation’s crippling debt crisis.”

Later that month, the administration identified another “creative solution.” In exchange for underwriting the build-out of nuclear reactors operated by Westinghouse Electric Company, the government would receive 20 percent of dividends exceeding $17.5 billion. If the privately held company’s expected valuation is $30 billion or more by 2029, the government may require it to offer stock, in which case the government would receive a warrant to convert its participation into a 20 percent equity stake.

Early returns indicate that the government has been a poor dealmaker. Last year, the Trump administration greenlit the export of certain Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chips to China in exchange for a 15 percent cut of the sales. Under that deal, Politico noted in June, the government should have received “about $63 million between August and December of 2025.” Instead, it had received nothing, because “the administration has yet to issue the necessary regulations to codify the profit-sharing arrangement amid questions about their legality.”

There is still time for the administration to change course before more deals go sideways. Perhaps the president should heed his own words. Capitalism is “just the best system,” he said moments after touting his communist potential in Ankara. “It’s been amazing.”

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