Trump’s ‘Chinese model’

Donald Trump may be the leader of the Republican Party, but when it comes to the free market—the very economic foundation of the modern GOP—he appears to be headed in the opposite direction of long-held doctrine.

Trump is now directly intervening in corporate matters, ostensibly to achieve his economic and foreign policy goals. This includes demanding a government cut of AI chip sales to China from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. He's also said to be in talks to grab a 10% stake in the beleaguered chipmaker Intel. And last month, the Pentagon snapped up a $400 million preferred equity stake in a rare earth mining company.

It's a series of moves that has surprised Wall Street and Washington policy veterans, to say the least, some of whom acknowledge that they've never seen anything like it. "It's state direction that we haven't had in the US," said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "It's very much the Chinese model." —Natasha Solo-Lyons and David E. Rovella

What You Need to Know Today

Governor Gavin Newsom has rallied enough support from local Democratic leaders to move ahead with an initiative to redraw California's congressional maps, a reaction to a similar, ongoing effort by Texas Republicans at Trump's behest (and with his help.) The Texas move, like that being contemplated in other red states, is part of a GOP effort to keep control of the House of Representatives in next year's midterms amid Trump's sagging poll numbers.

California Governor Gavin Newsom Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images

In deep-blue California, Newsom must now tap the state's wealthy to help sell his plan to voters. As the Democrat works with legislators this week to finalize a November special election over redistricting, fundraisers are hunting for donors to bankroll the crusade. But the California GOP has already filed a lawsuit—with the help of a law firm with ties to the Trump administration.

US public retirement funds will outperform typical investment expectations as they profit from strong stock returns, S&P Global Ratings said in a recent report. Analysts expect pensions to generate returns of 11% to 12% for the fiscal year that ended in June, driven by steep jumps in stock prices. These gains would be in spite of a nosedive triggered by Trump's tariff rollout in April, when the S&P 500 shed more than $5.4 trillion in two trading sessions. As for today's trading, here's your markets wrap.

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Commodities

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US Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said she's keeping her focus on the regulatory portfolio she has now, including plans to overhaul big-bank capital rules, rather than talk about Trump considering her for Fed Chair. "I have a big agenda. We're moving through it quickly," the Fed's top bank watchdog said during an interview with Michael McKee on Bloomberg Television.

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The world's major financial lobbying groups called on regulators to pause the upcoming implementation of tough new standards governing banks' cryptocurrency dealings and revisit measures they argue are needlessly onerous. In a joint letter to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the trade associations said policymakers should "seek updated information" on the use cases for the distributed ledger technology that underpins digital assets, and weigh "any appropriate redesign and recalibration" of the standards due to be adopted in 2026.

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What You'll Need to Know Tomorrow

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Bloomberg Power Players: Join us in New York on Sept. 4. Set against the backdrop of the US Open Tennis Championships, we'll bring together influential voices from the business of sports to identify the next wave of disruption that could hit this multitrillion-dollar global industry. Learn more.