Dem
51
GOP
49
Now that we've talked about the unhealthy symbiotic relationship between Donald Trump and Fox, how about the unhealthy symbiotic relationship between Donald Trump and corporations? It's pretty clear that his policies are often problematic for business interests. For example:
Certainly, there are some corporate types—your Uihleins and your Adelsons and your Mellons—who are motivated substantially by personal political concerns, and so have a permanent, reserved seat on the S.S. Trump. But earlier this cycle, there was much evidence of movement away from Trump on the part of the broader CEO class.
Not so much anymore, as the corporate types are once again willing to meet with, and donate to, Trump. Note that their general opinion of him, and his policies, has not changed. In fact, it may have gotten worse. For example, the former president attended the Business Roundtable's quarterly meeting last week, where the audience wanted to hear more about his plans for corporate tax cuts and for deregulation. It did not go well. Several attendees talked to reporters from CNBC afterwards, and gave negative reviews. "Trump doesn't know what he's talking about," said one CEO who was in attendance. "[Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map," remarked another.
The CEOs also know, by the way, that the Biden economy has been good for their companies and good for their stock prices. Biden has also invested a lot of federal money in things like microchips and green energy, and that money tends to diffuse throughout the corporate economy. And, unlike Trump, Biden is basically predictable. Even if he does something the corporate types don't really like, such as declare 1 million acres off-limits to oil drilling, he won't do anything reckless that could crash the economy or crash a particular industry.
So why would CEOs warm up to Trump, even when they were previously cool? Is it because they are that desperate for fewer regulations and less taxes? Not particularly. It's because they think he might win. And also because they are aware of one really, really big difference between the current president and the previous one: Biden will not actively work to hurt individual businesses or CEOs, while Trump certainly will.
Last month, Trump tried to shake down the CEOs of petroleum concerns, strongly hinting that they will need to come up with $1 billion for his campaign if they want a petroleum-friendly Trump administration. And over the weekend, he went on his social media platform to threaten non-Trumpy CEOs directly, declaring that any CEO who does not support him should be fired for incompetence.
Biden will still get money from corporate types. And many of those corporate types are absolutely hoping he will win. But they are largely going to have to keep things on the down-low. And they are also going to have to play the other side of the street, because they don't want to be enemies of the state if Trump wins. After all, they saw what Ron DeSantis (a.k.a. mini-Trump) did to Disney.
It's just another way in which Trump v2.0, if it happens, will have many/most of the features of a dictatorship. (Z)