Not one of the Fortune 100 CEOs—a bunch that has traditionally leaned Republican—has donated to former President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection marketing campaign, Yale Faculty of Administration Professor Jeffrey Sonnefeld instructed Fortune.
Solely two donated to Trump in 2020, and 0 once more in 2016, in accordance with new knowledge from Yale’s Chief Government Management Institute, which Sonnefeld heads. In contrast, 28 Fortune 100 CEOs donated to Utah Senator Mitt Romney’s 2012 marketing campaign, and 29 donated to John McCain in 2018.
The determine is only one indication that Trump has the “lowest level of corporate support” within the Republican Social gathering’s historical past, Sonnefeld mentioned. Knowledgeable by his shut expertise working with high CEOs—he has led discussions with the heads of PepsiCo, Ford, UPS, Verizon, and IBM, to call a number of—Sonnefeld famous that lots of them “despise” Trump’s social and monetary insurance policies.
These CEOs, a bunch that’s often 65%–70% Republican, are “either enthusiastically or reluctantly” going to vote for Biden as a substitute, Sonnefeld added. He listed off about 30 high CEOs, together with Melinda French Gates, David Ellison (son of Larry Ellison, the founding father of Oracle), and Reed Hastings, as Biden supporters.
The thought runs opposite to a number of latest articles in main media shops suggesting that enterprise leaders are flocking again to Trump after rejecting him in 2020. Final week, Trump met with dozens of high executives and promised additional company tax cuts. Stephen Moore, one among Trump’s closest financial advisors and (briefly) his nominee to go the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, instructed Fortune that he attended the assembly and the CEOs have been “enthralled” by Trump.
Financial insurance policies
Nevertheless, Sonnefeld mentioned that high CEOs imagine that the proposed tax cuts are inflationary with out reductions in authorities spending, an concept that Moore rejected as “completely stupid.” Moore claimed that company tax cuts create extra demand for {dollars} by growing the worth of overseas funding.
“When you create more demand for dollars, that means the value of the dollar increases and prices fall relative to the dollar,” Moore mentioned. “That’s what happened after the Trump tax cut.”
Current financial analysis signifies that Trump’s company tax cuts did enhance enterprise funding, however not practically sufficient for the extra development to “pay for” these cuts, as Trump’s workforce has lengthy claimed it might. The Congressional Funds Workplace estimates {that a} full extension of the cuts, which is able to start expiring in 2026, would value $4.9 trillion over 10 years, together with extra curiosity on the debt. The federal authorities’s publicly held debt stands at practically $27.6 trillion, or roughly 108% of the GDP.
Regardless, Sonnefeld mentioned that company tax cuts are extra of a priority for the ultrawealthy, naming enterprise capitalist David Sacks and Timothy Mellon, the inheritor to the Mellon banking fortune, as constituents with curiosity in such cuts. Each males have supported Trump.
If something, Biden’s antitrust insurance policies and assist for stronger capital features taxes, which Sonnefeld opposes, are extra of a priority for the CEOs, he mentioned.
“Nobody’s saying that the Biden policies are perfect, and there are some problems,” Sonnenfeld mentioned. “But they are dwarfed by the pernicious threat to inflation, economic stability, and, most importantly, democracy presented by the prospective Trump presidency.”
The CEO riseup of 2020
Many high CEOs have been extremely disturbed by Trump’s rejection of the election outcomes, Sonnefeld mentioned.
On the evening of Nov. 6, 2020, when Trump declared himself the winner, Sonnefeld sid, he acquired a manifold of texts and calls from anxious CEOs. They wished him to drag collectively a bunch of enterprise leaders to put in writing a press release affirming that Biden was the election’s true winner.
“I figured everybody else out there has money, resources, and reputation on the line, and they must figure I have nothing to lose if it doesn’t work,” Sonnefeld mentioned.
He referred to as 100 CEOs; the following morning, 94 of them confirmed as much as a 7:00 a.m. Zoom name to draft their factors. The chief executives from Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, and Walmart have been there, to call a number of, the Monetary Occasions reported on the time.
Sonnefeld declined to call any attendees, however he famous that almost all have been Republican-leaning. Nonetheless, the CEOs, with out their employees or press folks surrounding them, overtly condemned what had occurred the evening earlier than.
“It was a very powerful, open discussion,” Sonnefeld mentioned. Appearing because the scribe, he wrote down a number of factors from the group, first congratulating Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, then noting that if somebody challenged the election outcomes, they need to be sued.
The Enterprise Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Nationwide Affiliation of Producers, and others revealed that assertion.
After the Jan. 6, 2021 riots, the group met once more and unanimously referred to as for Trump’s impeachment, Sonnefeld mentioned.
Moore declined to touch upon the group or its actions, saying he wasn’t acquainted with them. Nevertheless, he referred to as Trump the candidate for small companies, including that Biden is the candidate for large enterprise and Wall Avenue pursuits.
“There’s no doubt about that,” Moore mentioned. He added that given how superior he believed Trump’s financial insurance policies to be in comparison with Biden’s, every kind of companies now ought to view Trump “much more favorably” on this election.
“It’s a different ball game now,” he mentioned.
