Like a kid in a toy store with a nearly unlimited supply of someone else's money, President Donald Trump is on a shopping spree the likes of which America has never seen.
With the announcements earlier this month that the federal government will take equity stakes in a company that makes advanced lasers and another that mines critical minerals, the Trump administration has now bought pieces of more than a dozen private companies. What began as an apparent effort to prop up stumbling giants like U.S. Steel and Intel has quickly morphed into a recurring, even routine, behavior. And it is all happening without even an attempt at getting congressional authorization.
