The GOP Is Warning About Socialism While Quietly Embracing It: Federal ownership of private companies has become routine. And it is happening on the right, even as conservatives point fingers at the left for its socialism. (Veronique de Rugy | 8.6.2026, reason)
A year ago, these deals looked like improvisation—one-offs stitched together under pressure with President Donald Trump’s fluid negotiating style. Now, the department announces them in batches. Federal ownership of private companies has become routine, and it is happening on the right even as members busily point fingers at the left for its socialism.
To be sure, this is not the abolition of private property that some in the DSA would love to see. But strip away the label and look at the mechanism. Socialism’s defining move is to put ownership and decision making in the same collective hands. A government equity stake does exactly that. Washington already regulates these firms, buys from them, and subsidizes them. Now, it owns pieces of them. Every lever it controls—tariffs, permits, contracts, the next tranche of subsidies—moves the value of its own holdings.
Bad enough he brought Protectionism, Isolationism and Nativism with him from his days as a Democrat…