A Republican member of the U.S. Senate has just come out against President Donald Trump's plan to acquire a stake in Intel, the U.S. chipmaking company. 

The Hill reports that U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) criticized the idea on Wednesday.

He did so via his social media account. Take a look:

If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?

Terrible idea.

What to know about the US getting a stake in Intel | AP News https://t.co/3UHCM39NUB

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 20, 2025

A "terrible" idea?

Paul is well-known for his libertarian views, particularly in the realm of economic policy.

Libertarians, of course, tend to want to maximize personal liberty/freedom, while minimizing the purview of the government. One could contrast Libertarianism with Socialism. The latter increases the government's purview by, for example, controlling the means of production, among other things.

Paul criticized Trump's plan on the grounds that it looks a lot like socialism.

"If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism? Terrible idea," he wrote.

It is a fair question.

Background

The Associated Press recently published a report titled, "Trump thinks owning a piece of Intel would be a good deal for the US.

Per the outlet:

The Trump administration is in talks to secure a 10% stake in Intel in exchange for converting government grants that were pledged to Intel under President Joe Biden. If the deal is completed, the U.S. government would become one of Intel’s largest shareholders and blur the traditional lines separating the public sector and private sector in a country that remains the world’s largest economy.

The outlet goes on to report that Trump's purpose in doing this is at least two-fold.

The Associated Press writes:

In his second term, Trump has been leveraging his power to reprogram the operations of major computer chip companies . . . Trump’s interest in Intel is also being driven by his desire to boost chip production in the U.S., which has been a focal point of the trade war that he has been waging throughout the world. By lessening the country’s dependence on chips manufactured overseas, the president believes the U.S. will be better positioned to maintain its technological lead on China in the race to create artificial intelligence.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick put it this way:

The president figures out that we should get, America should get the benefit of the bargain. I mean, that is exactly Donald Trump’s perspective, which is, why are we giving a company worth $100 billion this kind of money? What is in it for the American taxpayer? And the answer Donald Trump has is we should get an equity stake for our money.