Days after casually floating an immense upheaval to the US patent system, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick strikes again. He has attempted to squeeze Intel into granting the US government a 10% stake in the tech company. in exchange for retaining funding which Intel was promised from the $52.7 billion Biden-era CHIPS Act. As of writing, Lutnick is also considering using $2 billion from the CHIPS Act fund for critical mineral projects. As with most proposals from the Trump Administration, it is impossible to determine the sincerity of the consideration. Posts on Truth Social, appearances on news talk shows, and off-script comments on the podium are attempts to gauge market reactions to the proposals, which really do not help the accusations…