'Fascist capitalism': DC insider says Trump's push to 'control everything' will backfire

27 August

U.S. President Donald Trump leaves, following a cabinet meeting, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich warned in a new essay that President Donald Trump’s growing control over the U.S. economy may cause his downfall as the economy follows the dictates of numbers and value over the whims of a president.

Reich, who served under former President Bill Clinton, ticked down a list of examples of Trump trying to strong-man math like he bullies government officials.

“He’s trying to control the Federal Reserve Board, threatening Jerome Powell with unflattering stories about his expenditures on the Fed’s building. He has fired Fed governor Lisa Cook on dubious legal grounds,” Reich said. “He’s imposing his will on key industries, from semi-conductors to steel. He’s given the chip giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices export licenses to sell their semiconductors to China on condition that they pay the U.S. government 15 percent of what they make on those sales.

Not incidentally, Reich adds, Trump has reported substantial personal holdings in Nvidia.

Reich noted that Trump is also converting nearly $11 billion in Biden-era investment grants to Intel “into a 10 percent stake in the company, worth $8.9 billion, held by the government. Presumably, this would let Trump decide on its CEO."

Big tech corporations that were facing federal investigations and enforcement actions suddenly found their federal lawsuits dropped after they poured money into Trump’s initiatives and PACs, paving the way for further malpractice.

Meanwhile Trump’s import taxes (tariffs) “are the results of individual deals between Trump and particular countries, as well as between Trump and big American corporations,” said Reich. “So far, America’s trading partners have agreed to invest over $1 trillion in the American economy. Who will oversee such investments? Trump.”

“I don’t know the proper term for this. State capitalism? Fascist capitalism?” Reich wrote, and added that the problem with basing an economy on one man’s deals rather than supply and demand will soon become obvious to every American.

“Authoritarian regimes rely on vast bureaucracies to control industry, as does China’s Xi Jinping. But the new order being imposed on American industry doesn’t come from a vast authoritarian bureaucracy. It’s personal and arbitrary. A single so-called ‘strongman’ is seeking to control everything,” said Reich, adding that this is upsetting business interests who respond to market trends, not a president.

“Arbitrary and mercurial decisions are making the private sector nervous about investing in the U.S. economy, causing global lenders to demand a higher risk premium for lending to the U.S., and pushing the economy toward both inflation and recession — so-called ‘stagflation,’” Reich warned. And stagflation has already ended the careers of presidents.

Read the full essay on Robert Reich’s Substack at this link.

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