U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick watches as U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech in the Oval Office of the White House on June 11, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Daniel Heuer | Reuters
A new CNBC National Economic Survey finds that about half of Americans don’t think it’s appropriate for the U.S. government to take ownership of U.S.-based companies.
The findings come as the Trump administration is negotiating 30 deals worth nearly $27 billion in total, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank. There may be more. CNBC reports that the administration has held talks with influential artificial intelligence startup OpenAI about the possibility of government investment in its listing.
According to the All America poll, only 19% of voters say it is appropriate for the federal government to own a portion of U.S.-based companies, while 49% say it is inappropriate. However, nearly a third of voters, or 32%, are undecided, suggesting the administration has some persuasion to move forward with its plan.
The CNBC national poll was conducted from July 8th to 12th among 1,000 registered voters nationwide. Allows for a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. This poll was conducted in partnership with Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies. The results were announced on Friday.
Some US stock holdings were opportunistic, while others were part of a broader economic strategy. The largest occurred in August, when the U.S. government acquired a 10% stake in semiconductor maker Intel. The U.S. government had agreed to provide $8.9 billion in subsidies to Intel under legislation passed under the Biden administration. The Trump administration decided to seek shares in exchange, saying taxpayers could share in the potential upside.
The initial $8.9 billion in U.S. stocks was intel It has grown 372% since then and was worth $42 billion as of Thursday’s close.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick discussed Intel stock with Senate Republicans at a policy luncheon last week.
“We have to be careful about that,” Sen. John Hoeven (D) said after the meeting. “I understand that he sees value there for the taxpayers and other things. I want to be cautious in this area.”
Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) also said he was concerned about the trend of the U.S. government taking stakes. “I understand that there are times when it makes sense from a national security perspective and from a taxpayer perspective,” Husted said. But he added that it “should not be permanent.”
Mr. Husted supports legislation that would allow the U.S. government to invest in companies for national security reasons for up to eight years.
Other government interests were realized through concerted efforts by the federal government to ensure that the United States had access to the resources and technology necessary for national defense. The Department of Defense is supporting a company called . MP material China has tightened its grip on rare earth mining in recent years, tightening its grip on critical components needed to make advanced fighter jets, drones and other technology.
Critics of U.S. involvement in private business argue that while government goodwill may temporarily make companies more attractive to shareholders, in the long run companies that are heavily controlled by the government become less competitive. The US steel industry is often cited as a key example. For years, it has been heavily protected by tariffs and other government measures. In 2025, US Steel was taken private by a Japanese company. The U.S. government was given so-called golden shares that allowed it to veto certain business decisions.
America’s campaign to use its financial power to support companies involved in national security has attracted the attention of private investors with ties to the president. ProPublica reported in May that the White House asked the Pentagon to help defense startup Vulcan Elements, which had received investment from companies linked to the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The Department of Defense issued a $620 million loan to privately held Vulcan.
A White House official called ProPublica’s reporting on the White House’s involvement in the Balkans “fake news on steroids.” A spokesperson for Donald Trump Jr. said he was not personally involved in the deal and has not discussed his investments with federal officials.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to be concerned about the interests of the U.S. government. According to a CNBC poll, 66% of Democrats think it is inappropriate for the United States to acquire stock in American companies, while only 34% of Republicans agree.
Skepticism is high even among President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters, a poll finds. Those who identify as MAGA Republicans are evenly split between 31% who say such ownership is appropriate and 31% who say it is not. Another 38 percent said they had no opinion on the matter.
The new poll results marked a change from the October 2025 National Economic Survey, when 56% of voters said it was inappropriate for the U.S. government to own a portion of private companies. At the time, 13% of voters said such ownership was appropriate, and 31% said they had no opinion.
—Emily Wilkins contributed to this report.
