Joe Scarborough slams Trump’s ‘socialist’ tech takeover

Key Points:

• MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough criticized the Commerce Department's plan to take minority equity stakes in seven semiconductor companies, calling it a form of socialism practiced by Republicans despite their usual rhetoric against it.
• The department announced $874 million in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act, with the government receiving equity stakes in return, which Scarborough compared to "nationalizing" parts of the tech sector.
• Scarborough highlighted the irony of a Republican administration engaging in such interventionist policies, accusing them of straying from limited government principles by picking winners and losers in the market.
• He referenced a similar move in 2025 when the government took a 10% stake in Intel, arguing that these actions contradict Republican claims of opposing socialism while criticizing Democrats.
• Scarborough called for bipartisan condemnation of the policy, urging all small government advocates to oppose what he described as an outrageous expansion of government control over private companies.