There was a time, not so long ago, when you could assume a Republican administration in Washington D.C. would generally favour free markets — or at least business — over government control of the economy. But that was before Donald Trump brought his personality-driven brand of populism to the nation’s capital, turning a political party that once at least rhetorically favoured private enterprise, entrepreneurship, and a limited role for the state into one that leads the government to demanding partial ownership of large businesses, allowing deals only if Uncle Sam gets a piece of the action. Some Trump administration moves are indistinguishable from those favoured by Vermont’s socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. American voters now choose between flavours of state control.