WASHINGTON, June 6 -- Donald Trump, who built a decade of politics on the promise of getting government out of business, now wants to put the government inside the most powerful companies in American technology. The president said Friday that his administration is weighing whether the United States should take equity stakes in the country's largest artificial intelligence firms, and that he would meet their executives as soon as next week.

The idea arrived, as many of Trump's do, as an aside rather than a policy. He said his team would "look into" the government taking a position in the AI companies, the kind of phrase that in his mouth can signal a settled intention or a thought he will have forgotten by Monday. What is not in doubt is ...