In campaign ads for the upcoming midterm elections, Donald Trump promises to "defeat communism," a message that Republicans hope will rally voters against the left. However, data crunched by Sweden's V-Dem project suggests that under Trump, the US is moving in the opposite direction: toward greater state ownership of productive resources.
As noted by Cullen Hendrix of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the US had ranked among the four countries with the least state control from 2002 to 2024. That changed dramatically in 2025.
By November of last year, the Trump administration had spent more than $10bn taking stakes in companies deemed essential for national security, including Intel, ventures mining for critical minerals, and an option to take a stake in nuclear reactor maker Westinghouse. It also secured a "golden share" in US Steel as part of approving Nippon Steel's purchase of the company.
The article, written by Eduardo Porter and published by The Guardian, notes that while the US is nowhere near the levels of state ownership seen in 20th-century communist states, the shift represents a notable departure from recent American policy. By V-Dem's accounting, Washington's stake in the economy is still smaller than in 163 countries, but the trajectory is clear.
Supporters of the policy argue that government equity stakes in strategic industries are a reasonable response to competition from China, where private companies contribute 60% of GDP but the state maintains heavy influence. Government-owned or part-owned enterprises are common in many market economies, with Norway ranking 18th on the index due to its majority stake in its oil company.
Critics, however, see irony in a Republican administration expanding state control while denouncing socialism. The article points out that the grab for productive resources is being driven not by the left but by Trump himself, who has never read Lenin.