One of Ohio’s top union leaders is hopeful that the Trump administration’s new $9 billion investment in tech giant Intel will help push the state’s long-awaited semiconductor manufacturing plant forward.

Intel said on Friday it amended the CHIPS Act funding deal with the U.S. Department of Commerce to remove earlier project milestones and received about $5.7 billion in cash sooner than planned.

President Trump’s forays into private business appear to be driven by money rather than an overarching plan to bolster American competitiveness.

On economics, Trump’s instincts are more uneven. This is a good example of that unevenness — no matter how Lutnick tries to spin this, the government owning part of Intel is, on some level, socialism. It’s at least socialism-ish!

Donald Trump’s ongoing effort to remake American capitalism continued apace on Friday, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced that the government would be taking a 9.9 percent stake in chipmaker Intel in exchange for the government’s agreeing to release billions of dollars in grants that Congress had already authorized via the Chips Act.

A new plan to take an equity stake in the troubled chipmaker sets an awful precedent — and will do very little good.

Intel has agreed to the U.S. government taking a stake in it, President Donald Trump and the company announced Friday, capping an extraordinary chapter between the White House and the computer-chip maker.

Critics caution U.S. government equity stakes in American companies could lead to cronyism, distorted economics and bad deals for taxpayers.