Is he just trying to be in charge of more things than Elon?

Here’s a fun corporate governance puzzle for you. Suppose you’re a foreign company trying to buy an American steel producer. The previous administration blocked your deal. The current president promised during his campaign to block it too, saying he’d stop it “instantaneously. Absolutely.” How do you get the deal approved?

If you guessed “write the president’s name directly into your corporate charter and give him personal veto power over your business decisions,” congratulations! You understand modern American capitalism.

That is, more or less, what happened with Nippon Steel’s acquisition of US Steel. The company has filed amended corporate documents with the SEC that contain what might be the most extraordinary governance provision in corporate history: a section that literally names “Donald J. Trump” and grants him veto power over everything from plant closures to pricing strategies to executive compensation.