Big Business Should Wake Up to the Trump Threat
Democrats need to engage corporate leaders
In another case of malicious prosecution, Donald Trump’s regime took the ludicrous, thuggish, and unprecedented step of opening a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who responded to the Justice Department’s weaponization with searing moral clarity. The markets reacted ever so slightly.
There was some pushback in the Senate. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) actually vowed to hold up votes on any Fed nominee until this was put to rest. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) also hinted this might make confirmation of other Fed nominees difficult. Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) merely expressed confidence in Powell and urged that this get wrapped up quickly. “We need this like we need a hole in the head,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.), a member of the banking panel. Nevertheless, he failed to vow action to defend Powell.
Beyond Capitol Hill, economic figures were a mixed bag. Former federal officials have been most outspoken. Three ex-fed chairs and five ex-Treasury secretaries released a joint statement titled “Statement on the Federal Reserve,” deploring the move. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said this “feels like an attempt at murder-suicide.”
At least the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which has done more than any single outlet to normalize Trump in business circles, wrote, “In the annals of political lawfare there’s dumb, and then there’s the criminal subpoena federal prosecutors delivered Friday to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. President Trump would do himself and the country a big favor by firing those responsible for this fiasco.” Ah, if the czar only knew…
However, with few exceptions, corporate leaders have been mute, if not silent. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon tepidly spoke up in favor of Fed independence, but neither he nor other business titans seemed inclined to denounce Trump directly. This was just one more reminder that while Trump takes a wrecking ball to the economy (not just the East Wing), most in the business community remain in a fetal position.
They want to have it both ways. “Privately, CEOs are very alarmed” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute told CNN. “And yet, there’s little public sign of that private alarm.”
The business group Leadership Now Project was the rare exception. Stepping up to the plate on Powell, its CEO Daniella Ballou-Aares wrote that the Powell investigation “sends a chilling message to current and future government officials that their role is not to serve the American people but rather to further specific political ends. Protecting the Fed’s independence is essential to preserving the stability.”
Chalk up the relative quiet to sheer cowardice. Most business execs are betting on others to rein in Trump. However, CNN offers alternative explanations:
Others may be betting on the “TACO” trade — the idea that “Trump always chickens out” when it comes to his more extreme inclinations. Why stick your neck out to become an enemy of the president if it’s all just for show? Especially when you can wait out the drama of the day and buy the dip when the world moves on?
And then there’s the more cynical explanation: Businesses are run by people who, like stock traders, love the idea of lower interest rates so much, they’re willing to roll the dice on the country’s long-term stability.
Democrats need to intensify pressure on financial leaders and corporations to get more heavily engaged in protecting the capitalistic system and rule of law that allows them to prosper. If corporations do not want to see the job market shrivel under the weight of violent, excessive immigration crackdowns or lose the stability of an independent central bank, they should start to weigh in publicly and with Republican lawmakers who have marched lock step behind Trump.
Democrats should remind them that passivity, let alone fawning over and paying off Trump, will not work out well in the long run. Their silence in the face of violent immigration thuggery that promises to paralyze cities, freeze economic activity, and increase crime will not bode well for their operations or endear them to Democrats who are poised to take at least one house of Congress.
If nothing else, business interests should understand that they are likely to find Democrats with far more power after the 2026 midterms. Executives and other financial actors should be concerned not just about avoiding Trump’s wrath but about painting a target on their backs for irate Democrats to delve into their toadying to Trump on everything from ballroom donations to pay-to-play “contributions” to purchases of Trump family crypto.
If the business community fails to grasp the importance of functional government, preserving healthcare for Americans, rational immigration policy, and Fed independence, they might at least consider what happens when Democrats win the majority in one or both houses and take control of the gavels in oversight committees.
In the short run, when business interests come running to Democratic representatives and senators with their pressing issues (e.g., infrastructure, regulatory assistance), Democratic lawmakers should use the opportunity to jawbone corporate leaders on the importance of defending the foundations of capitalism. Business leaders should remember: their conduct during the era of Trump’s unrestrained tyranny will fall under new scrutiny (be it the explosion of pay-to-play politics, participation in crony capitalism, or conduct that used to fall under scrutiny by serious prosecutors pursuant to the corrupt foreign practice statue).
In short, Democrats need to start pressuring corporate America to resist the backsliding into autocracy, chaos, and violence. Silence should no longer be an option.
Big business is making the Trump threat far more threatening. Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, Thiel, Altman, Tim Apple™️ all have given Trump cash transactions in the millions and/or 24-karat-gold bribes, and almost all have changed their companies' policies to censor speech and to encourage overt hate speech toward LGBT people, immigrants, nonwhite people and women to make Trump and his hateful cabal happy. Zuckerberg just hired a former Trump crony to serve as Meta's corporate president. With all due respect, without the empowerment of big business, Trump would not be able to wage his war on democracy, and so it is absurd to expect businessleaders to do the right thing even in the interests of saving their own nation from collapse. These are sociopaths whose only values are greed and ego fulfillment.
It doesn't seem to matter to any of these businessleaders that at least some of their customers, like me, are now former customers. I am a DC resident and native who will never pay another dollar to the Washington Post, to Amazon, to Prime, or to any subsidiary of any company related to Bezos, and nor will I ever give a dollar to Meta, and I have had only iPhones since 2009 but will change to Android and take all my related business—music, app downloads, payments, from Apple because of Tim Cook's self-humiliating groveling. These corrupt and spinless leaders have guaranteed at least some customer loss for the long term. I realize that none of Bezos's payments to Trump have driven Amazon's customers away, and that to me is tragic and it also shows that people really are not willing to put their money where their mouths are and sacrifice convenience of Amazon ordering for their purported principles, and these businessleaders depend on that kind of laziness and blind brand allegiance. If consumers were thoughtful about who they choose to impower with their money, businesses would respond to consumer demands. The only reason we are in checkmate ultimately is that the public doesn't care enough to boycott.
Or business leaders should consider that although there may be short term gains, the leader they are supporting could bring it all crashing down on them the way it did for the CEO’s of Krupp, Porsche and Thyssen a little over 75 years ago.