Big business closed a Faustian bargain with President Trump.
When he said something incendiary or flirted with authoritarianism, top executives issued vague and moralizing statements and tried to distance themselves from a pro-business president who coveted his approval.
But when Trump cut taxes, reversed onerous regulations or used them as props for a photo opportunity, they applauded his leadership and smiled at the cameras.
After Wednesday’s events at the Capitol, the real cost of this balancing act was evident, even with tear gas floating around the roundabout.
The executives who supported Trump were ultimately among his facilitators, giving him the endorsement of commercial credibility and normalizing a president who turned the country against itself.
“This is what happens when we subordinate our moral principles to what we perceive as business interests,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation and a board member of Square and Ralph Lauren. “Ultimately, it is bad for business and for society.”
Since the start of Trump’s presidency, corporate America has wavered between supporting the president’s economic agenda and condemning his worst impulses.
At the beginning of Trump’s tenure, dozens of business leaders joined two presidential advisory boards. Anxious to have a seat at the table and influence policies according to their preferences, the renowned chief executives set aside their reservations about Trump’s character flaws, his history of racist behavior, allegations of sexual assault against him and his declarations of legal impunity.
“He is the president of the United States. I believe he is the pilot of our plane, ”said Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan at the time. “I would try to help any president of the United States because I am a patriot.”
The effort did not last long. Months after the groups were formed, they broke up after Trump’s insistence that there were “very good people on both sides” during a spasm of white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
After that, business leaders tried to explain how they got into trouble.
“I joined because the president asked me to join, and I thought it was the right thing to do as CEO of a company like Merck,” Ken Frazier, one of the most prominent black executives in the country, who was the first to give up on the boards, he said shortly after leaving. “I felt that, for the sake of personal conscience, I could not remain.”
But money has a short memory, and not long after Charlottesville, Mr. Trump has returned to the good graces of corporate America. A few months later, the Trump administration passed a tax review that generated unexpected profits for corporations and wealthy individuals.
By cutting corporate taxes, Mr. Trump delivered one of his most coveted awards to the business community, and business leaders lined up to support the effort.
Business and Economy
In an appearance at the White House with Trump in October 2017, Tom Donohue, the chief executive of the United States Chamber of Commerce, was delighted at the prospect of tax cuts. “The business community has long waited for a government, the president and a Congress willing to do what we haven’t done in decades,” said Donohue.
Still, taking advantage of their new wealth, companies were drawn much closer to a White House that was separating children from their families on the border and approaching dictatorial regimes.
“Trump’s tax cut was fool’s gold,” Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, said on Thursday. “People were seduced and, unfortunately, decided, for their own benefit and for the benefit of their company, that this was the right thing to do.”
In 2019, it was as if Charlottesville never happened, and a new business consulting group was formed, this one with people like Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive; Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive; and Julie Sweet, chief executive of Accenture.
At the first meeting, Mr. Cook sat next to Mr. Trump. When the president asked Mr. Cook to start talking with a pat on the wrist, the Apple boss said, “Thank you, Mr. President. It is an honor to serve on this board. “
At the same meeting, Visa’s chief executive, Al Kelly, congratulated Trump for his “very, very good leadership” and Ginni Rometty, then IBM’s chief executive, cajoled the president for his “unshakable leadership”.
Some of the same CEOs had previously criticized Trump for his behavior. Still, they were at the White House. It was as if the worst moments of his presidency were a nightmare.
“The past four years have presented difficult challenges for CEOs who must balance aid for advancing policies to move the country forward, while speaking strongly on issues that go against their fundamental beliefs,” said Rich Lesser, president- Boston Consulting Group executive. part of one of the first advisory councils.
Ultimately, however, executives have been reduced to the same kind of mental gymnastics and euphemism attacks that the president’s socially liberal supporters have had to carry out in recent years, extolling Trump’s economic policies at opportune times, while ignoring his flaws fundamental.
The big bargain was well articulated last year by Stephen Ross, the billionaire developer for Hudson Yards and owner of the Miami Dolphins, who supported Trump. “I think he’s been causing division,” Ross said in an interview at the time. “But I think there are a lot of great business policies that he enacted that were fantastic and no one else could have done that except him.”
The pandemic brought a new round of photos for the president and senior executives. Here was Mr. McMillon from Walmart with Mr. Trump at the Rose Garden. There was the president with the president of the Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford, at a plant in Michigan. And here was Chris Nassetta, Hilton’s chief executive, with Trump in the office room.
While Trump lied about his government’s response to the pandemic and struggled to subvert the democratic process, some of the big business sided with him. Even when the president refused to accept the election results, Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone’s chief executive and one of Trump’s staunchest allies, made comments saying he understood why people were concerned about electoral irregularities. At the end of November, he released a statement saying: “the result is very certain today and the country must move forward”.
On Wednesday, many CEOs were, once again, fed up. The National Association of Manufacturers called on Vice President Mike Pence to consider invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and removing Mr. Trump from office. Many executives – including Apple’s Cook, JPMorgan’s Dimon and Schwarzman – denounced the violence, deplored the state of the country and asked for responsibility.
But after four years of much talk, but little action, his words were empty.
“When people make political decisions for business reasons,” said Walker, “it can have heinous social consequences.”