What A Day - Three Signs Of The Trumpification Of The Economy

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

In the federal government’s latest excursion into the private sector, the US announced last week that it took a 10% stake in Intel. The move comes after the Defense Department became the biggest shareholder in a mining company, and the Trump administration made deals with AI chipmakers. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is continuing to direct his ire at the Federal Reserve— this time specifically on Fed Governor Lisa Cook, whom he tried to fire on Monday. So for more on state-sponsored capitalism and the seemingly never-ending Federal Reserve fight, we spoke with Scott Lincicome. He’s the vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute.And in headlines: President Trump makes a lengthy television appearance with his Cabinet, a whistleblower says the Department of Government Efficiency put Social Security data at risk, and a federal judge dismisses a Department of Justice lawsuit against Maryland's entire federal bench.Show Notes:Check out Scott's Op-Ed – https://tinyurl.com/2ud35mxwCall Congress – 202-224-3121Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Wednesday, August 27th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is Waday. The show celebrating the biggest pop culture news of the week. The Princess of Wales is blonde now. Wait, was there other pop culture news? Nothing comes to mind. On today's show, President Donald Trump and friends hold a televised cabinet meeting longer than the runtime of the godfather. And Doge puts American social security.

data at risk. Fun! But let's start with socialism. That's what conservatives love to cry when federal and local governments control portions of private companies, or when a mayoral candidate champion city-owned grocery stores in New York. But according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik on Fox News Monday, when President Donald Trump takes control of private companies like U.S. Steel or Nvidia or Intel. That is not socialism. I'll tell you what that is. That's the best businessman in the United States of America, in the Oval Office, doing fair things for us, the American taxpayers. I mean, look, I helped him structure the deal. And he wouldn't structure a socialist deal. Yes, and a move that made independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders very happy. Really?

The U.S. government announced last week that it has taken a 10% stake in Intel, propping up a company that has not had a very good time over the past few years. And that's just the most recent federal excursion into the private sector. There's the Defense Department becoming the biggest shareholder in a mining company, the deals with AI chipmakers, Nvidia, and AMD we discussed in the show, and a golden share in U.S. Steel. And because we all love a command economy, don't we folks? Trump is also continuing to take aim at the independence of the Federal Reserve. On Monday, he announced his desire to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, and before you ask, she has been charged with no crimes. In response,

Cook announced her decision to sue over the removal attempt on Tuesday. Her lawyer said, quote, President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. To court we go, I guess. So for more on state-sponsored capitalism and the seemingly never-ending Federal Reserve fight, I spoke to Scott Linsicum. He's the vice president of General Economics of the Cato Institute. Scott Linsicum, welcome back to WOTA. Well, thanks for having me back. I must have done okay the first time. let's start with the government directly involving itself in running corporations there's been a trend here the government secured decision making at u.s steel with after its takeover with by nippon steel early this summer getting a golden share that means they can apparently do anything as far as i can tell uh the government invested in invidia the ai and graphics chip maker and it bought a 10% stake in intel a company that was not doing very well you wrote about this trend this week you're not not a fan, it sounds like. One, why is the administration doing this? And two, why is this a bad idea? Honestly, why they're doing it, I think, is a bigger question. Trump likes to do deals

and really likes to puppeteer big businesses. And I should note, I almost corrected you there. They didn't buy an equity stake in Intel. They took it. They hauled the CEO. into the Oval Office after accusing him of being compromised by China, and then suddenly came to a deal in which their subsidies, which are grants, their money literally handed to the company to do make chips and do whatever, was converted into equity, which is kind of like debt, right? I mean, you know, you got to pay it back if you're the company in some form. So they just took it. And again, I think that's about, you know, this kind of control and dominance over the company's

business operations that subsidies and cajoling don't really provide. Now, okay, now on your second point, what are the problems with it? I mean, the big problem is the politicization of things that are best left to markets. And what we don't want is politicians supplanting that market process with their own decisions. Because let's face it, politicians are self-interested individuals. They are not necessarily worried about companies' long-term health. or actual economic growth. They're worried about getting reelected and probably other things, too, in the case of this

Trump administration. And so you end up with decisions that are made for political reasons. Like, say, you know, we need to keep that Ohio megafab facility that Intel is building and maybe they'll someday finish it. Got to keep that gravy train rolling because all the jobs in Ohio that you need. That's a political calculation, not a market one. So that's just bad. It means, you know, less growth, less.

innovation, all the things we want for the U.S. economy, and have, you know, because our tech sector, contrary to what you might hear, still is globally dominant in the vast majority of areas that you care about. And it would really suck to lose that. The tariffs have been another leg in the, you know, on the table of the Trumpification of the U.S. economy. You've been watching Trump threatened, negotiate back off and then double down on some tariffs for the past six months. And we talked about this. You weren't. that the economic growth we saw in the spring and summer might be less growthy as more tariffs actually take effect. What are you watching most closely and why?

Yeah, so the two big things for the fall are how tariffs really start leaking into consumer prices. Because so far, a lot of the pain caused by the tariffs has been born by American companies. So it's kind of acted like a corporate tax. Now, that's not good. but it's just not a visible daily reminder, like going to the grocery store and seeing prices go up. So economists expect the full brunt of the tariffs to leak into consumer prices this fall and winter. And so I think that's one thing to really keep an eye on.

But the other is how tariffs are affecting companies. because you're talking about tens of billions of dollars in new taxes that are being eaten in most cases by companies like John Deere that just laid off 300 employees, in part because of additional tariff costs. You know, I think we talked about this last time. We have this stuff called soft data, and that's surveys of various businesses, and there's the Fed surveys, and there's private surveys. So the soft data of surveys of businesses has said problems are coming.

These companies are reporting much higher prices and dwindling inventories that were tariff-free. They're seeing softer demand in the market. So contrary to what J.D. Vance might tell you, the economists have not been proven wrong here. You are seeing the data start to show the effects of tariffs. It's just taking a little longer than we thought, and American companies are eating more of the costs than we thought. You mentioned the Fed during surveys, and the Fed is one of Trump's latest obsessions. Trump just tried firing one of the Federal Reserve's governors, Lisa Cook, setting aside his accusations of whatever it is she did that she hasn't been charged with or accused of by anybody else. It's clear he's been angling to shuffle governor's seats at the Federal Reserve.

why and to do what? Yeah, very simply to cut interest rates. So Trump believes that the Fed is holding interest rates too high. Basically, the idea is you have lower rates, you tend to have more economic activity in things like, you know, businesses will take out loans and do more expansions and hire more and that kind of stuff. So he wants lower rates. And he doesn't like that the Fed has been quite cautious in terms of continuing to lower rates from the kind of high higher rate environment we had because of the inflation we had a couple of years ago. He wants it lower now. Now, never mind that our inflation metrics are actually still well above the Fed's target. Never mind that, again, we're still waiting for tariffs to show up in the data.

Now, economists will say tariffs are a one-off thing. The Fed should look through that. but that's easier said than done. And so there's a decent argument that the Fed shouldn't be cutting rates right now. I would call it reasonable minds can differ about this stuff. But Trump doesn't care. He wants cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, because he thinks that's going to superpower the U.S. economy, and then he'll, of course, take credit for all of that. There are huge risks both in some sort of cutting spree at the Fed, higher inflation,

a weaker dollar, things we don't want. And, of course, there are risks sacrificing the independence of the Federal Reserve generally because the Fed prides itself on being independent from politics. So it makes rate decisions not based on who's in office, but based on what the data say. Now, some of my libertarian colleagues would question just how apolitical the Fed is, But regardless, actively trying to find reasons to fire Fed governors is a bad idea because it makes things even worse, right? It makes it even more political. So we want to avoid that.

And I think that call – well, if it happens and if it continues, you know, again, it further calls into question the United States economy is some sort of safe haven for investment, which we've been forever. And that's – we've all benefited from that in a lot of ways. and that might sadly not be the case if this continues. I am aware of just one instance where there was a direct push by a president to get the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. That was Richard Nixon in 1971. One of the many things Richard Nixon got up to around that time. How did that turn out? Not great.

A lot of inflation. This was not like a very rigorous economic decision. And of course, again, the result was a decade of. very, very painful inflation, stagflation, so low growth, high prices. We do not want that. And, you know, we're not anywhere near that level of economic problem yet. But growth is slowing. Prices, again, are higher than the Fed wants. The last thing we should be doing is kind of embarking on a very reckless monetary policy. Given these three big moves, the administration directly investing in companies and demanding money from those companies, too.

Months of tariffs, and now this news with the Federal Reserve, is there a picture emerging to you of what economic Trumpism looks like? Argentina in the 1990s? I mean... Great. Fantastic news. Yeah. I'm sure that worked out awesomely.

Yeah. There is a little more than a hint of peronism in the terms of very expansive monetary policy to kind of paper over very large debt. because we have that too. We have a lot of debt going on. We just actually increased that debt. A lot of goofy import substitution and industrial policy and the government being basically directly involved on corporate boards and the rest. So all joking aside, this is developing country stuff. This is not what the United States is known for and what has made the U.S. economy the envy of the world, even today. The economist had a big.

cover story just like six, eight months ago that was like, even now, U.S. economy is outperforming its peers across all sorts of metrics. It's foolish to just abandon that. But here we are. Well, Donald Trump loves musicals. I wonder how he feels about Ovidah. Don't cry for me. U.S. economy? Yeah. Scott once again, thanks again so much for joining me. My pleasure.

That was my conversation with Scott Lundsikam, vice president of general economics of the Cato Institute. We'll link to his work on the show notes. We'll get to more of the news in the moment. But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads.

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We're respected all over the world like never before, probably. President Trump's cabinet gathered for its latest round of ass-kissing during Tuesday's meeting, which, by the way, was apparently the president's longest televised appearance ever, coming in at over three hours. During the meeting, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. went on a long-winded tirade against, well, the wind, or wind turbines. Kennedy alleged that turbines endanger ocean life and pre-complimented Trump for accomplishing a pretty impressive feat.

They're wiping out the whale population, the Atlantic whale population, the big whales, the minkies, the gray whale, or the humpback whales, right whales. And you aren't going to save the whales on the East Coast because of the Desi. Ah, yes. I remember a certain someone telling Joe Rogan that the vibrations from the turbines drive whales crazy, right? Later during the cabinet athon, Defense Secretary Pete Higgseth grabbed an opportunity to pitch a new title for himself.

Maybe next time we're here, my card will be Department of War. We'll see. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Just this week, he said the new moniker, quote, Just sounded better. Does it? And speaking of things that just sound better,

Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem was light on specifics but heavy on praise for the president. You made this country safe, you opened up the economy, you enforced the law, now people can get up and provide for their families and go to work every day and be confident in that. Sure they can. Just ask anyone who works at a restaurant or on a farm or on a construction site or just looks Latino. Officials at the Department of Government Efficiency, or as we so lovingly know it, Doge, reportedly put Social Security data of more than 300 million Americans. Americans at risk. How? By uploading sensitive information to a cloud server earlier the summer. That's according to a whistleblower disclosure submitted to the special counsel's office and House and Senate oversight lawmakers Tuesday. The whistleblower, Charles Borges, worked as the chief

data officer at the Social Security Administration. According to Borges, the potential sensitive information that risks being released includes social security numbers, health diagnoses, income, banking information, familial relationships, and personal biographic data. It probably would have been faster to list what information isn't at risk. The complaint says if the data gets in the wrong hands, quote, the government may be responsible for reissuing every American a new social security number at great cost. And then I'd have to memorize a new social security number. And who has time for that?

SSA said in the statement that it takes whistleblower complaints seriously. But it wrote in part, quote, We are not aware of any compromise to this environment and remain dedicated to protecting sensitive personal data. In a cloud, that probably can be hacked. Just where I want my social security number to be held. A federal judge dismissed a Department of Justice lawsuit against Maryland's entire federal court bench Tuesday.

This started back in June, when the DOJ sued all 15 judges after the court temporarily paused contested deportations of migrants. In Tuesday's ruling, the Trump nominated U.S. district judge ripped the administration a new one. He noted the DOJ's attempt to cast federal judges as left-wing lunatics, writing, quote, this concerted effort by the executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate. But the decision really came down to the fact that a district court isn't the best place to settle a dispute between the judiciary

and the executive. Typically, the DOJ could appeal specific decisions, or they could fight the blanket rule that has paused some deportations. But, As the federal judge wrote, quote, it's no surprise that the executive chose a different and more confrontational path entirely. The judge did note that these are not normal times. Not normal times, indeed. The Trump administration is resurrecting a long-abandoned practice called neighborhood checks as it vets immigrants for citizenship.

CBS News first reported it Tuesday after obtaining a memo outlining the change. Basically, citizenship and immigration services would conduct on-the-ground investigations of applicants' homes and workplaces. The checks could include interviews with neighbors and coworkers to determine candidates' moral character and loyalties to the Constitution. The agency might visit residences and employers going back five years prior to an application. Neighborhood checks were once required before becoming an optional part of the naturalization process in 1991.

After that, the government ended up waiving them entirely. The Citizenship and Immigration Services memo went out last week and terminated the waiver. It lets individual officers decide whether to actually conduct a neighborhood check. And that's the news. One more thing. Do you remember Jade Helm? The U.S. military is planning an unprecedented training exercise this summer called Operation Jade Helm 15 across seven states, and with polls showing trust in the government near record lows, that exercise has some Americans feeling uneasy. Yeah, that's an understatement.

See, back in 2015, the U.S. military organized a military exercise called Operation Jade Helm. Over eight weeks across Texas, New Mexico, and a host of other states, roughly 1,200 members of the U.S. military held a series of trainings focused on helping soldiers prepare. for combat environments. In response, many people on the right, from longtime conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones to Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, lost their ever-loving minds. And while Jones and others ranted online about how this was clearly a means by which then President Barack Obama would seize control of states that didn't support his election through martial law, Abbott took the step of asking the Texas State Guard to keep an eye on

things. Here's CBS 7. Now Governor Greg Abbott is stepping in and ordering the Texas State Guard to monitor the operation. In a letter to the Texas State Guard commander Abbott states, his reasoning is, quote, to address concerns of Texas citizens and to ensure that Texas communities remain safe. This all was how some portion of the American rights sounded pretty much all the time during the Obama administration. Federal Emergency Management Agency concentration camps for all gun-owning Americans. Obama will institute the New World Order and enslave all conservatives.

The message was clear. Nothing is more terrifying than the federal government, and nothing is more critical than to limit the power of the federal government. Unless, of course, the president of the United States, the head of the federal government, is a Republican. Earlier this month, Mother Jones reporter Stephanie Mensomere went back to Jade Helm and the conspiracy-minded right-wing activists, and it turns out that actually they are, by and large, totally fine with Trump.

Nothing wrong with the president who sends the National Guard into major cities on the pretext of skyrocketing crime rates while presenting no real data to support this conclusion. Which is odd, because one might think that they do not comply anti-government activists who were so convinced that Obama or former President Joe Biden were trying to put them all in Guantanamo Bay would be a little nonplussed by a president who says things like this. You have a guy in Illinois, the governor of Illinois, saying that crime has been much better in Chicago recently, and Trump is a dictator. And most people say, if you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants.

Or this. I don't have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States. But they aren't. It's pretty clear. The don't tread on me flag, these folks are such big fans of must have a tiny little asterisk on it that reads, tread on them instead. Before we go, one.

all of your friends and neighbors to know you begin every day screaming, wake up sheeple about the Trump administration's worst kept secret, that you're seeing through all of this with your third eye and also your regular eyes. Boy, do we have the doorstep accessory for you. Release the Epstein

files, doormats are available for pre-order now in the Cricket Store. You can now make sure no one steps foot in your home without a reminder of the thing Trump wants us to forget. Shop now at crooked.com slash store. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Contemplate how D.C. has

apparently become a haven for gay Trump staffers and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how the New York Times wrote about the surprisingly high number of gay men working for the Trump administration who are just fine with a president who will wield homophobia and transphobia as a weapon for absolutely no reason. Like me. What a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston. And I'd like to quote, a MAGA media influencer quoted in the piece who said that her straight lady Trump fan friends in D.C. Quote, thought the dating scene would be really great, that MAGA would bring in a whole wave of like, you know, eligible, conservative, smart enterprising men. But she said instead, quote, everybody's freaking gay.

Indeed. What Today is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily 4. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Sean Ali, and Gina Pollock. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of News and Politics is Adrian Hill.

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