Please take out your tiniest violin:
“A difficult time to invest.”
“Everybody’s paralyzed.”
“I’m sorry I can’t be particularly positive.”
“The chaos that is reigning right now is causing everyone to sit on their hands.”
That’s Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, ON Semiconductor CEO Hassane El-Khoury, Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson, and Nasdaq Non-public Market CEO Tom Callahan on the world of Donald Trump proper now. Their feedback over the previous week seize a rising disquiet amongst enterprise leaders, a month right into a presidency that a lot of them had cheered.
Griffin is a prolific GOP donor, giving over $100 million final cycle. He gave $30 million to the Senate Management Fund, the Senate GOP’s marketing campaign arm. That was greater than 1 / 4 of the $116.5 million it raised.
Talking at a convention final month, Griffin mentioned, “From my vantage point, the bombastic rhetoric, the damage has already been done. It’s a huge mistake to resort to this form of rhetoric when you’re trying to drive a bargain, because it sears into the minds of CEOs and policymakers that ‘we can’t depend upon America as our trading partner.’”
Franklin Templeton is an funding agency with $1.5 trillion in property. In January, at Davos, Johnson advised Bloomberg TV, “I think the view is that he’s going to be good for the economy and that therefore is good for both public and private markets.” And like so many Trump apologists, on the time she dismissed Trump’s tariff threats. Bloomberg reported, “Speaking on the president’s threats to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, Johnson said Trump has consistently used the negotiating tactic of making broad statements and following up with a more practical approach.”
Think about pondering that Trump ever used a “practical approach.”
Johnson’s father is Charles B. Johnson, the previous CEO of Franklin Assets, and he seems to have been a lot lively final yr as nicely, donating to conservative candidates and causes. Jenny Johnson seemingly donated some pocket change to Democratic candidates, however she has additionally praised Elon Musk’s “efforts to fix the budget deficit and bring down Treasury yields,” based on The New York Occasions.
One other CEO warning about Trump’s devastating insurance policies is Ford CEO Jim Farley: “Let’s be actual sincere: Long run, a 25% tariff throughout the Mexico and Canada borders would blow a gap within the U.S. trade that we have by no means seen. … Frankly, it offers free rein to South Korean, Japanese and European corporations which are bringing 1.5 million to 2 million automobiles into the U.S. that would not be topic to these Mexican and Canadian tariffs. It might be one of many largest windfalls for these corporations ever.”
To not fear, Farley! Trump will seemingly tariff these different auto imports as nicely, inviting additional retaliatory tariffs from these nations, blowing much more holes within the U.S. trade! What a return on the $1 million Ford gave Trump for his inauguration, proper?
The White Home is bound sounding defensive too.
“There isn’t a serious CEO in America who would prefer the disastrous, negative-growth policies of the previous administration over the pro-growth, low-tax, and low-regulation policies of President Trump,” White Home spokesman Harrison Fields advised Semafor. “In just four weeks, more than $1 trillion in private investment has flowed back into our country, and that’s a direct result of the Trump Effect, which is laying out the welcome mat for investment.”
That quantity is bunk. It features a $500 billion Apple funding that, by all indications, is routine for Apple and would seemingly be taking place irrespective of who was within the White Home. It additionally features a supposed $500 billion funding relating to synthetic intelligence that even Musk laughed off. And naturally, progress was optimistic underneath Biden, and now it’s seemingly veering damaging underneath Trump. So there’s that …
We’ve been trapped on this infinite cycle the place Republicans break the financial system, then Democrats are elected, repair it, after which thrown out as a result of “Republicans are better for the economy.”
This Trump financial system must be wrapped round each Republican’s neck, not simply within the 2026 and 2028 elections but additionally in yearly shifting ahead, without end. Possibly CEOs can be taught that nevertheless a lot they could hate particular person rules, it’s a small worth to pay for functioning markets and a wholesome financial system.
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