Trump Wants to Take Over the Fortune 500. What Can Go Wrong?

Opinion|Trump Thinks He Is the C.E.O. of Everything. Awesome.

Not content to steer the ship of state, our president apparently wants to run the ship of commerce, too.

Literally. The entire Fortune 500.

In ripping up numerous business regulations, Donald Trump seems intent on replacing them with himself. The recipient corporations don’t necessarily want Mr. Trump’s meddling, particularly given his fun house view of economics, but they can’t get away from it. They won’t necessarily benefit, and neither will we.

It’s been a busy few months. Among other actions, Mr. Trump has reportedly forced Nvidia to pay a 15 percent tax on A.I. chips it sells to China and at one point demanded the resignation of Lip-Bu Tan, C.E.O. of rival chipmaker Intel, for his past ties to Chinese firms. Our president has compelled the companies involved in a major steel acquisition to reportedly give the U.S. government the authority to name a member on the board of the combined company. He hinted that Goldman Sachs should fire its chief economist, apparently for having the temerity to predict that the president’s tariffs would eventually fuel inflation, a prediction seconded by many economists in America (who are not working for Mr. Trump). He’s even found time to demand that Coca-Cola produce its signature soda with cane sugar instead of the high-fructose corn syrup the company has used for decades.

Unfortunately, Mr. Trump’s view of the world doesn’t always line up with economic realities. He pressures energy companies to drill, drill, drill, even if energy prices suggest they shouldn’t be expanding production. He loosens environmental regulations — after companies have already spent billions to meet them. Then there’s his distorted aversion to clean energy even as energy demand for industries such as artificial intelligence increases and the deep-red state of Texas leads the nation in wind and solar energy production.

The Great Dealmaker wants in on the deals. After initially opposing a proposed merger of Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, Mr. Trump reversed himself and said he’d allow the deal to go through — provided, according to reports, his administration won a type of “golden share” of company. This golden share would explicitly give the president a personal say in the combined company’s major decisions going forward.

The same applies to the bigger issue of bringing back manufacturing. If you believe the Fed’s data, manufacturing as a component of our economy has remained relatively steady since 1947. Moving assets around the world is slow and expensive, especially when many Americans prove by their buying habits that they won’t necessarily fork over more for Ford F-150s or iPhones made here. Nor do they even seem to want the manufacturing jobs Mr. Trump is so eager to create.