WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Thursday opened the door to a radical shift in the U.S. government’s relationship to private industry as the coronavirus outbreak upends the nation’s economy, saying he would back the government taking stakes in certain companies.
Asked if he would support the federal government moving to take an equity stake in some companies, Trump said: “I do. I really do.”
Trump, speaking at a news conference at the White House, added: “We will be helping the airline industry. We will be helping the cruise ship industry. We probably will be helping the hotel industry.”
U.S. government investments in public companies are rare except in the case of bailouts to save ailing firms and jobs.
Bailout requests related to the spread of coronavirus, in the form of direct grants, loans, loan guarantees and tax relief have topped $2 trillion, but companies rarely seek government ownership for fear they would lose control of their business.
Asked if a trillion dollar stimulus is enough, Trump said: “We will know about that later. We’ll see what happens. It depends how long, so much depend on what’s going on in this room, in terms of the medical. If we can stop it in its track the virus, it’s plenty. If we can’t, we’ll have to go back and talk.”
Reporting by Jeff Mason and Alexandra Alper; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom; writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall
Fascism!
Hang ‘em for high treason!
EXACTLY what I was thinking, NC!
I still like my pinata idea 🙂
This is the very definition of fascism trumpettes. A government “stake” in business is one step to government taking of it. Which is then communism. Do you see how that works? Do you understand the game now?
Exactly!
Yup
Staying on the path at all costs
Like , well just like a puppet does
This shit is so transparent you step in it every dam day
Especially the ones he owns stock in.
Can there still be any doubters left? Or do Trump supporters have the reverse of TDS?
National Socialism=Fascism
Gee how’d that work out for Benito boy? Now let’s see….Musssolini wound up hanging by his ankles upside down, hung by the Italian people….Hmmmmm….Benito, Benny the Yahoo….is there something about the name Benny? But just keep on shooting yourself in the foot, Frump ol’ man! Bwahahahahahahahahahahah!