WSJ: “Trump Wants an Export Tax”

This sort of thing – the government controlling industrial policy – used to be anathema to conservatives. But then Trump's not a conservative.  He's a populist – champions the "common people" as opposed to the perceived "elites". And a populist can be right wing or left wing – think of Bernie Sanders or the guy running for NY City mayor. 

President Trump views tariffs as a toll that he alone gets to set for access to U.S. markets. Now he’s charging fees on U.S. companies for the purported privilege of exporting artificial-intelligence chips to China. Mark this as another step toward government control of private business.

The Administration is demanding a 15% cut on sales of Nvidia’s H20 and AMD’s MI308 chips to China. Want to do business? Pay Paulie. It’s not clear whether the Administration plans to use the cash to pay down the deficit, spend it, or use it for its mooted sovereign wealth fund.

In any case, this is an export tax that Congress didn’t authorize. Will AMD or Nvidia challenge the political extortion in court? Selling chips in China may be more important to them than defending the legal principle that the government can’t willy-nilly shake down companies.

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Step by step, Mr. Trump is expanding the long arm of the state into more of the private economy. Will any Republican object? Alas, probably not.