Democrats could snarl Trump administration stakes in companies

With Republicans in charge of the White House and Congress, President Donald Trump has embedded the federal government in private sector companies’ affairs in unprecedented ways. That could change once Trump’s Democratic adversaries take over the House and Senate following the blue wave midterm.

Democrats, planning to root out alleged corruption involving Trump, his family and their business associates, have signaled they will closely scrutinize companies that have curried the president’s favor.

Their investigations may extend to Intel and the dozens of other companies that have clinched equity stakes with the government during Trump’s second term. Democratic lawmakers in July asked law firm Skadden Arps for details about its involvement in the Intel deal.

The dynamic could affect how Trump approaches relationships with private sector companies, after spending two years involving the government in their affairs through stock agreements or, in the case of U.S. Steel, acquiring a “golden share” when the company was acquired by Nippon Steel.

The golden share, which allows a holder to outvote other shareholders, was negotiated as part of the June 2025 deal. The highly unusual arrangement gives Trump veto power over several key areas of the steelmaker’s business, including those related to employee salaries, capital investment and even the company name.

In a unique twist, the company’s amended charter specifies that after Trump leaves office, the veto power passes not to his successor, but to the Treasury and Commerce Departments as representatives of the U.S. government.

U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt is scheduled to speak Wednesday with CNBC’s Megan Cassella about what’s next for U.S. industry at the B20 summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The U.S. Steel intervention turned out to be just the beginning of the U.S. government taking stakes in companies, a highly unusual move stateside. A month after acquiring the golden share, the Trump administration agreed to a $400 million stock deal with rare-earths company MP Materials. The month after that, Trump announced the U.S. would take a 10% stake in chipmaker Intel.

By January, one year into Trump’s second term as president, the administration had established some form of equity position in 14 companies, according to the CATO Institute’s tracker. That number skyrocketed to 41 by November, including nine such announcements in May alone, the tracker shows. The holdings include both publicly traded and privately held companies, and CATO tracks deals that are closed as well as others that have been made public but are still being negotiated.

Following Republicans’ decisive defeat in the Nov. 3 midterm election, the federal government has not revealed any new stock positions. But Trump, entering lame-duck status and on the verge of losing political power over Congress, could keep trying to steer his government to forge more equity deals with companies, said Indiana University associate professor Sarah…