President Donald Trump is calling for an end to a $52.7 billion semiconductor subsidy program aimed at encouraging companies such as Intel, TSMC, and Samsung to expand manufacturing in the United States.
“Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn’t mean a thing. They take our money and they don’t spend it,” Trump said in a speech to Congress on March 4.
The president then urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to repeal the legislation and redirect unspent funds toward reducing the national debt or other priorities.
Trump’s comments mark his strongest criticism yet of the Biden-era initiative, which seeks to bring high-end chip manufacturing to the United States through taxpayer-funded grants. Instead of subsidies, Trump argued, the country should have used tariffs to pressure foreign companies to manufacture domestically….