(Brian Snyder/Reuters)President Trump is increasingly intervening in the economy, making decisions about corporate winners and losers in ways that Republicans for decades have insisted should be left to free markets — not the government. Now the Commerce Department is further picking winners and losers as it weighs thousands of requests from companies for waivers from the import taxes. Those regulators, the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, rejected a similar Energy Department rescue for coal and nuclear plants in January. Murray chief executive Robert Murray and FirstEnergy chief executive Charles E. Jones Sr. have contributed heavily to Trump and GOP political activities. In the exclusions process, Commerce officials also are tasked with refereeing arcane disputes between steel companies over what specific products are and are not available in the United States.

Source: Washington Post June 01, 2018 23:40 UTC