Washington | President Donald Trump said he'd support the US taking an equity stake in companies that receive coronavirus-related aid from taxpayers and prohibiting firms from increasing executive bonuses and stock buybacks.

"We don't want that," Trump said Thursday (Friday AEDT) at a White House news conference. "Some companies, as you know, did stock buybacks. It's very hard to tell them not to but I would tell them not to."

"We don't want to pick winners and losers," he said. AP

He answered "I do, I really do" when asked whether he supports the US taking equity stakes in companies that receive assistance, an idea that his top economic adviser Larry Kudlow publicly suggested on Wednesday.

Asked if he would ban buybacks and bonuses as a condition of a stimulus bill under development in Congress, Trump said: "It takes many, many people -- in this case -- to tango. Conditions like that would be O.K. with me."

Trump later hinted that some companies now asking for the government's assistance had previously engaged in buybacks, suggesting he'd be less willing to help them. Trump has been criticised for a wave of buybacks that followed his 2017 corporate income tax cut.