What the U.S. Government Is Doing With Its Stakes in Companies

P.M. Edition for May 7. During Trump’s second term, his administration has announced direct investment stakes in at least 10 companies such as Intel and U.S. Steel. We hear from WSJ reporter Maggie Severns about why this is an unorthodox approach by the government and how American executives are responding. Plus, Secretary of State Marco is in Rome in an effort to repair the relationship with Pope Leo and Italian leaders. National security reporter Robbie Gramer gives us an update from the Italian capital. And Elon Musk is being summoned to France to face criminal charges in a sprawling investigation of his social media platform, X. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can listen to What the U.S. Government Is Doing With Its Stakes in Companies online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

What the U.S. Government Is Doing With Its Stakes in Companies is an episode from WSJ What’s News by The Wall Street Journal.

This episode is 11:25 long.

This episode was published on May 7, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from WSJ What’s News when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.