DAILY BS BULLETIN:
- Bill Maher accused Trump of practicing socialism through federal stakes and revenue-sharing arrangements with private companies.
- The government owns 9.9% of Intel and holds sweeping rights over U.S. Steel.
- Maher’s guests called the approach “crony capitalism” and “thuggish.”
Bill Maher spent last week warning that socialists were colonizing the Democratic Party. Friday night, he looked across the aisle—and announced that President Donald Trump had apparently opened a government branch office on Wall Street.
During HBO’s Real Time, Maher argued that the Trump administration’s expanding financial involvement in major corporations looked suspiciously like the economic system Republicans routinely condemn.
It’s so interesting, the wrinkle in this story, because now that they’re communists, there’s an opening for socialism. And you know who’s filling it? Donald Trump!
Maher pointed first to the federal government’s 9.9% stake in Intel, acquired through an agreement converting previously authorized CHIPS Act funding into corporate shares.
Donald Trump, how else do you explain a 9.9 stake in Intel by the government? Is that not socialism?
The Intel arrangement is real. Under the August 2025 agreement, Washington committed nearly $8.9 billion in previously approved funding in exchange for as many as 433 million Intel shares. The company’s federal filing describes the government as a passive investor without a normal seat on its board, although the agreement also includes warrants that could expand Washington’s position under certain circumstances. Intel’s SEC filing lays out the transaction.
President Trump has defended the arrangement as protecting taxpayers and strengthening a strategically important American manufacturer. But even Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo challenged him during a January interview:
How is that free-market capitalism?
Maher also cited the administration’s unprecedented agreement allowing Nvidia and AMD to sell certain artificial-intelligence chips in China while surrendering 15% of the resulting revenue to Washington.
Nvidia, we took 15% cut when we let them sell chips to China.
Trump publicly described it as a deal he personally negotiated after initially demanding a larger percentage. Critics from both parties questioned whether national-security export licenses should effectively be sold for a government cut. Former Bush administration export-control official Christopher Padilla called the arrangement “unprecedented and dangerous,” according to The Associated Press.
Republicans scream socialism and communism while Trump’s government takes a 9.9% stake in Intel, a 15% cut of NVIDIA’s China chip sales, and inserts itself into the Nippon Steel boardroom.
Bill Maher: There’s an opening for socialism, and you know who’s filling it? Donald… pic.twitter.com/ATIV0pY6E5
— Blue Georgia (@BlueGeorgia) August 8, 2026
Maher’s third example involved Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel. As a condition of the deal, the federal government received a “golden share” carrying extraordinary powers over the company.
The government can appoint an independent director and block certain decisions involving plant closures, jobs, production, headquarters and major investments. Those rights are detailed in U.S. Steel’s announcement.
Maher described it more broadly:
Nippon Steel, that’s merged with U.S. Steel, we have a golden share. We basically run their boardroom now.
That overstates the government’s day-to-day control—the golden share does not literally put Trump in charge of every boardroom decision—but it accurately identifies Washington’s unusual veto power over important corporate actions.
Maher then delivered the ideological punchline:
And you know this is socialism, I think, because Bernie Sanders agrees with it all.
Guest Tara Palmeri went further, declaring that “the free market is dead” and labeling the administration’s approach “crony capitalism.”
They have decided that the government wants to control 30 different companies.
Libertarian commentator Matt Welch focused on how the Intel agreement developed. Trump had publicly demanded the resignation of CEO Lip-Bu Tan over alleged conflicts involving China before meeting with him at the White House.
The president is just singling out a huge CEO of an important company. And so they had to scramble the jets and have a meeting at the White House—and what happened at the end of that meeting? Okay, you say we get 10% of your company. That is thuggish behavior.
No public evidence establishes that the Intel stake was extracted as a direct price for allowing Tan to remain CEO. Still, Welch argued that presidential pressure combined with government ownership creates an alarming appearance.
Maher’s accusation also came with some delightful ideological whiplash. Only one week earlier, he warned that the Democratic Party was being “colonized” by socialists, condemned the DSA’s plans for abolishing police and prisons, and said he would sooner vote for Sarah Palin than support that agenda.
Now he is accusing Trump of elbowing Bernie Sanders away from the government-ownership buffet.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Intel — Federal government stock agreement filed with the SEC
- U.S. Steel — Nippon Steel partnership and federal golden-share rights
- Politico — Trump defends Nvidia export-license revenue deal
- New York Post — Maher warns Democrats are being colonized by socialists
