By BERNARD CONDON, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has a message for critics who think turning the U.S. government into a major stockholder of Intel is a “socialist” move: More is coming.

“I will make deals like that for our Country all day long,” the president posted on Truth Social after critics piled on, adding later about future ownership stakes, “I want to try and get as much as I can.”

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One possible target: defense contractors, whom Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC Tuesday were ripe for the picking given the U.S. government is a big customer.

Free-market conservatives were already wary of Trump’s tendency to interfere in corporate decision-making by, for example, telling Apple where it should make iPhones, or even demanding a cut of Nvidia’s sales of chips to China. But the Intel move is a startling defiance of Republican orthodoxy that says governments shouldn’t try to pick corporate winners and losers and risk messing things up as owners by rewarding executives for politically smart but financially stupid decisions.

The U.S. government is getting a 10% stake in Intel through the conversion of billions in previously granted government funds and pledges, making it one of Intel’s largest shareholders.

“If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?” Republican Sen. Rand Paul said in a post on X. “Terrible idea.”

Scott Lincicome, a Cato Institute trade expert, says Intel could end up making decisions now to please Trump even if they’re impractical, say, by going ahead with plans to open a long-promised chipmaking factory in Ohio. And even short-term gains from government ownership, such as more companies buying Intel semiconductors, will hurt business in the end by saddling those companies with inferior chips.

“Intel might simply gain customers from folks that are looking to stay on Trump’s good side,” he said. “But innovation requires ruthless competition, an endless drive for an advantage — and now they might accept a disadvantage because they need the political win.”

Many Republicans remained silent on the issue, prompting others to suggest they are free market hypocrites.

“For so many of my self-described true conservatives, you’re going to have to explain to me how this reconciles with true conservatism and true free-market capitalism,” Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis told CBS in an interview. “I don’t see it.”

Early last year, the Biden administration agreed to provide Intel with billions of dollars in funding under the CHIPS Act for it to build semiconductor manufacturing factories around the country, part of a plan to produce 20% of the world’s most advanced chips in the U.S. by 2030, up from zero at the time.

Trump argues that he got the Intel stake for free by converting $11.1 billion of funding into the equity stake. He also notes that Intel shares shot higher after he struck the deal Friday, handing a big win to U.S. taxpayers.

“I love seeing their stock price go up, making the USA RICHER, AND RICHER,” Trump posted Monday morning before the stock trading began. “More jobs for America!!! Who would not want to make deals like that?”

The price of Intel stock fell slightly both Monday and Tuesday, and investors have reason to be cautious.

In a filing to its investors after the deal was announced, Intel warned that it may lose overseas customers reluctant to buy from a U.S. government-owned business. The company has lost more than $22 billion since the start of 2023 after largely missing out on the frenzy surrounding artificial intelligence.

James Secreto, a former Biden administration official who helped hammer out the CHIPS Act grants, said a falling stock price is a big danger given Trump’s tendency to measure his success and failure by gyrations in the public market and his willingness to jawbone companies to do things to help him politically.

“The Trump administration now owns Intel’s success or failure,” said Secreto, former Commerce Secretary deputy chief of staff. “The next question is how far will the U.S. government go to defend its equity postion?

He called the Intel stock purchase a “bridge too far” even for Democrats who believe government help is needed occasionally.

“For the sake of national security, we still need Intel to win on performance, not politics,” he said.

That Trump would be labeled a “socialist” by members of his own party is ironic given that he has long wielded that term against his opponents.

Yet in some ways the Intel move fits a pattern.

Trump has erected the highest tariffs in decades, a trading strategy that his party has long rejected, and has tried to influence corporate decisions the GOP used to say were best left to business owners. In addition to telling Apple not to shift production to India, he has gotten Coca-Cola to change ingredients and warned Walmart not to raise prices.

There have also been a series of moves that will directly benefit or hurt the government depending on how businesses perform.

In June, Trump struck a deal approving Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel in exchange for a “ golden share ” that essentially gives the U.S. government veto power to ensure national security interests are protected against cutbacks in steel production. In July, he spent $400 million of taxpayer money on MP Materials stock to make the U.S government the biggest owner in the Las Vegas rare earths miner. Then earlier this month came his deal with Nvidia and AMD to give the U.S. government a 15% cut of revenue from selling certain chips to China.

A White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations said the deals with Intel, Nvidia, and U.S. Steel are seen as one-offs, necessary moves because the companies have outsized importance to the country’s national security. The source likened the deals to the government’s departure from free market principles when it limits American aerospace companies from selling fighter jets to countries like China.

Some conservatives aren’t buying it.

“This isn’t about funding innovation,” said influential conservative radio host Erick Erickson on Friday. “It’s a paradigm shift towards socialism.”

In addition to Lutnick’s comments about targeting defense contractors, Trump’s top economic adviser has also said hinted about what is likely coming next. He said the president is interested in setting up a sovereign wealth fund in which federal government would invest in an array of companies.

“There’ll be more transactions, if not in this industry then other industries,” said Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council.

One prominent politician did voice support for the Intel deal, but it more likely hurts than helps Trump’s cause with Republicans.

“Taxpayers should not be providing billions of dollars in corporate welfare to large, profitable corporations like Intel without getting anything in return,” said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist and Trump antagonist. “The taxpayers of America have a right to a reasonable return on that investment.”

AP reporter Michelle L. Price contributed from Washington.

By SAM METZ and SALLY ABOU ALJOUD, Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli and American officials will meet in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the aftermath of war in Gaza, despite no sign that the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and pushed its largest city into famine, is nearing its end.

Their meeting comes as ceasefire talks show little apparent movement and outrage mounts over deadly Israeli strikes on a southern Gaza hospital that killed 20, including journalists and emergency responders.

The sun sets behind buildings destroyed during Israeli ground and air operations in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Israel’s military said it would investigate the hospital attack. In initial findings Tuesday, it offered no immediate explanation for striking twice and no evidence for an assertion that six of the dead were militants.

U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday that President Donald Trump would chair the meeting, which would feature “a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together on the next day.” He did not offer details.

Talks about the strip’s future are unfolding as aid groups warn an expanded Israeli offensive could worsen the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory, where most residents are displaced, neighborhoods lie in ruins, and parts teeter on famine.

The meeting comes nine days after Hamas said it accepted a ceasefire plan from Arab mediators, following Israel’s announced plans to seize Gaza’s biggest city, where some health and infrastructure services remain online and hundreds of thousands are sheltering.

An official from Qatar, one of the countries mediating the talks, said last week that the proposal under discussion was “almost identical” to an earlier draft that Witkoff put forth and Israel accepted. Hamas and Israel have both previously announced acceptance of truces under discussion. But many have fallen apart, with both sides accusing the other of last minute changes.

The deal said to be under discussion would include a 60-day truce, the release of some hostages held by Hamas in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and a road map toward talks on a lasting ceasefire.

Many in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition oppose such a phased deal. Israel has pressed ahead with plans to mobilize tens of thousands of reservists for an expanded offensive.

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On Wednesday, hospitals reported at least 10 casualties, including one near an aid distribution site in central Gaza and at a displacement camp in southern Gaza.

An Israeli strike killed three people, including a child and a woman, and injured 21 others when it hit displaced people’s tents in Khan Younis overnight on Wednesday, the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital said. Three separate Israeli strikes killed at least six others in Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital said on Wednesday.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes. Its military offensive has killed more than 62,819 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals but 50 remain inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.

Protests have swelled in Israel, with families of hostages and their supporters urging a ceasefire. The government argues that a broadened offensive is the best way to bring them home and cripple Hamas’ capacity to launch such attacks again.

Abou Aljoud reported from Beirut, Lebanon. Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s foreign minister had the top U.S. diplomat in the country summoned for talks after the main national broadcaster reported Wednesday that at least three people with connections to President Donald Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.

Trump has repeatedly said he seeks U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, a vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. He has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island.

Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S., and Greenland have said the island is not for sale and condemned reports of the U.S. gathering intelligence there.

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Danish public broadcaster DR reported Wednesday that government and security sources which it didn’t name, as well as unidentified sources in Greenland and the U.S., believe that at least three Americans with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in the territory.

One of those people allegedly compiled a list of U.S.-friendly Greenlanders, collected names of people opposed to Trump and got locals to point out cases that could be used to cast Denmark in a bad light in American media. Two others have tried to nurture contacts with politicians, businesspeople and locals, according to the report.

An influence operation is an organized effort to shape how people in a society think in order to achieve certain political, military or other objectives.

DR said its story was based on information from a total of eight sources, who believe the goal is to weaken relations with Denmark from within Greenlandic society.

DR said it had been unable to clarify whether the Americans were working at their own initiative or on orders from someone else. It said it knows their names but chose not to publish them in order to protect its sources. The Associated Press could not independently confirm the report.

“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement emailed by his ministry. “It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead.”

“Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom will of course be unacceptable,” Løkke Rasmussen said. “In that light, I have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the U.S. chargé d’affaires for a meeting at the Ministry.”

Cooperation between the governments of Denmark and Greenland “is close and based on mutual trust,” he added.

The U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service responded to a request for comment by saying it believes that “particularly in the current situation, Greenland is a target for influence campaigns of various kinds” that could aim to create divisions in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland.

It said it “assesses that this could be done by exploiting existing or fabricated disagreements, for example in connection with well-known individual cases, or by promoting or amplifying certain viewpoints in Greenland regarding the Kingdom, the United States, or other countries with a particular interest in Greenland.”

The service, known by its Danish acronym PET, said that in recent years it has “continuously strengthened” its efforts and presence in Greenland in cooperation with authorities there, and will continue to do so.

By JILL COLVIN and LINLEY SANDERS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As armed National Guard troops patrol the nation’s capital as part of an unprecedented federal takeover of Washington’s police department, handling crime is now a relative strength for President Donald Trump, according to the latest AP-NORC poll.

Americans are generally not happy about the Republican president’s handling of issues like immigration and the economy but are more positive about his tough-on-crime approach, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Indeed, the vast majority of Americans, 81%, see crime as a “major problem” in large cities — a concern Trump has seized on as he has deployed the National Guard to the District of Columbia and threatened to expand that model to cities across the country. And his overall approval rating has increased slightly, from 40% in July to 45% now.

President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

But the poll shows there is less public support for federal takeovers of local police departments, suggesting opinions could shift over the coming weeks or months, depending on how aggressively Trump pursues his threats.

For now, many Republicans in particular feel extreme action needs to be taken, even as statistics show violent crime is down in Washington and across the nation following a coronavirus pandemic-era spike.

“About damn time that somebody did something,” said Charles Arnold, 87, a lifelong Republican who lives in San Diego.

Arnold, a retired electronics technician and veteran who served in the Navy, said that it had been jarring to see the National Guard being used for domestic law enforcement on U.S. soil but that the action seemed to be necessary.

“That’s not what the armed forces are for. They shouldn’t be there. They shouldn’t have to be there. The police should be allowed to police,” he said. “I detest the thought that it needs to be done.”

Handling crime is a strength for Trump

About half of U.S. adults, 53%, say they approve of Trump’s handling of crime, the poll finds.

That’s higher than his approval rating on the economy, immigration and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine — which are in line with his overall approval rating.

Trump’s approach on crime is similarly popular among white and Hispanic adults, with roughly half in each group saying they approve of the way he’s handling the issue. Black adults, however, are substantially less likely to say they’re on board with Trump’s approach to crime, with just 27% in favor.

Armed National Guard soldiers from West Virginia patrol the Mall near the Labor Department in Washington, where a poster of President Donald Trump is displayed, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Trump also garners much stronger support from independents on crime than on other issues. Roughly half of independents approve of his handling of crime, compared with about 3 in 10 who approve of his handling of the economy, immigration and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Most think crime is a ‘major problem’ for large cities

There’s broad agreement among Americans that crime is a significant issue in large cities, even with incident numbers in decline.

That belief is especially pronounced among Republicans, nearly all of whom see crime as a significant problem in large cities. Roughly 7 in 10 independents and Democrats agree.

Americans who live in urban areas are also more likely to say crime is a “major problem” in their own communities.

A man has his car searched by multiple federal agencies including Department of Homeland Security investigations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Washington Metro Police Department in Washington, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

They include Tiana Parker, 30, a liberal Democrat who lives in the suburbs of Seattle. Parker is dismayed by what Trump is doing in Washington, D.C. — and his presidency overall — but nonetheless calls crime “a major problem.”

“I don’t feel safe going to Seattle, especially as a woman, at least not by myself,” said Parker, who said she was sexually assaulted on the train several years ago. There was a deadly shooting at a strip mall near where she lives last year, and there have been several times she said she has been followed while walking down the street.

While she thinks crime needs to be addressed, she believes Trump’s approach is misguided and dangerous.

“What he is doing is a waste of resources, and he’s not really attacking the real problem. It’s creating a real divide,” she said. “I think that it is a gross lack of respect and trust towards his citizens.”

That sentiment is shared by Mark Hackl, 49, an information technology director who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was a lifelong conservative Republican until 2016, when he left the party because he was dismayed by Trump. He is now a registered independent.

“I think crime is always an issue that needs to be addressed,” he said. “I’m always pro-law and order, so to speak.” But he said there comes a point where the ends don’t justify the means.

“My raw emotion is I’m horrified by it,” he said. “We’re not supposed to allow the active military to function in the borders of the United States.”

More think federal government should support police, rather than taking over

Still, there are limits to what the public may accept. The poll finds 55% of U.S. adults believe it is “completely” or “somewhat” unacceptable for the federal government to take control of local police departments, as Trump has effectively done in Washington.

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Republicans are overwhelmingly in favor of the federal government using the military and the National Guard to assist local police, but even they are more hesitant about the federal government taking control of local police departments.

About half of Republicans find this to be acceptable, while about one-third say it’s not. Democrats are broadly opposed to both.

For Republican David Gehret, 62, a maintenance technician who lives in rural Narvon, Pennsylvania, what Trump is doing is spot on.

“Bring it on,” he said. “Protect us.”

The AP-NORC poll of 1,182 adults was conducted Aug. 21-25, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Colvin reported from New York.