The White House Keeps Crowning Stock Market Winners

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President Trump is steering the White House into the unusual territory of an investment firm. 

The administration revealed a 10 percent stake in Trilogy Metals that sent the stock price for the tiny Canadian mining company up nearly 300 percent over the last 48 hours. It’s the latest in a string of bets that underscore America’s shift away from regulation and toward ownership.

Over the last few months, the U.S. government has also taken positions in Intel, MP Materials, and Lithium Americas. 

Alongside Trilogy Metals, each of those companies operate at the heart of the semiconductor and critical minerals supply chains that are powering the artificial intelligence boom. 

The approach marks a departure from the previous administration’s inkling for tax incentives, subsidies and regulations and instead mirrors something like a venture-capital strategy. 

The share prices for these four companies have skyrocketed in kind.

To be clear, the White House isn’t necessarily picking industry-leading companies. But because the White House picks them, investors are repositioning as if these names will emerge as winning bets.

The four picks so far reflect the administration’s focus on the energy and materials needed to compete in the AI race, though some commentators have compared the entire strategy to that of China’s state-backed markets model. 

As part of the Trilogy Metals deal, President Trump also approved a permit for a mining road in northwest Alaska, which the administration believes will unlock “the minerals we need to win the AI arms race against China,” according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. 

In any case, the consequences aren’t yet clear as to the long-term effects of the government participating in the market it’s supposed to oversee.

Yet while the line between national security and financial interests have blurred, that hasn’t discouraged investors. 

Now, is it really so surprising that a White House endorsement would move stocks this much? The returns have become impossible to ignore. 

If you bought shares of Intel the day before the government announced its stake in August, for example, you would have doubled your money by now. 

It’s possible the administration will still expand its portfolio across the energy and defense sectors, which opens up more lanes to speculate which company could see the next triple-digit surge.

For some opportunistic investors, the easiest new strategy this year may just be “buy what the White House buys.”