Having the DoD sign up to buy a lot of capacity from Intel would be WAY better than Trump illegally forcing Apple and Nvidia to buy chips from Intel. That would cost them dearly if Intel was unable to deliver sufficient capacity on time or on target performance-wise.
This is the problem. Government(nevermind just a branch of government) does not have anywhere near the scale of Intel itself, nevermind something enough to sustain a cutting edge foundry.
The easiest temporary solution is force *Intel* to use their own Foundries. That's the easiest way to fill their fabs. Right now the problem isn't so much they don't have external customers, the problem is that they aren't even using their own. Unless Nvidia/Apple uses Intel Foundry en masse, an announcement to use Intel likely won't cover the losses of Intel itself not using their own.
You know what's the biggest elephant in the room that everyone is refusing to acknowledge? Including here?
-Why isn't Intel, a still mega-user of silicon not using their own Foundries?
-Why not force Intel Product to use Intel products before forcing Apple/Nvidia?
-What's going on with Intel Foundry that Intel Product doesn't want to use their own?
-If we can force Apple/Nvidia to hobble their product by using "inferior" Intel Foundry, wayyyyy before that we can force Intel Product to use Intel Foundries!