Top CEOs Share ‘Universal Revulsion’ to Trump—but Smile to His Face
CEOs at an invite-only summit broke into groans when Trump’s latest tariff dropped—but many later enjoyed a chummy meeting with the president.
Andrew Harnik/Getty
The same business leaders who are publicly cordial to Donald Trump—even to his face—privately bemoan the havoc the president’s policies are wreaking on the American economy, according to a report.
When news broke on Tuesday that a livid Trump had doubled tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum from 25 to 50 percent, dozens of top corporate executives at the Yale CEO Caucus broke into groans and incredulous laughter, The Wall Street Journal reported.
If the northern ally didn’t roll back its electricity surcharge, Trump also vowed to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.” (Both sides eventually backed off.)
The invite-only summit was organized by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale University’s business school. Its attendees included corporate bigwigs such as JPMogran Chase’s Jamie Dimon, billionaire Michael Dell, and Pfizer chief Albert Bourla.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for The Atlantic
“There was universal revulsion against the Trump economic policies,” Sonnenfeld told the Journal. “They’re also especially horrified about Canada.”
Nevertheless, when many of the same CEOs attended a question-and-answer session with Trump later that same day for Business Roundtable, there was not even a hint of confrontation. Despite the stock market’s recent nosedive, the executives lobbed softballs.
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In an ad hoc poll at the Yale event, the CEOs agreed that they would need to see an even more precipitous decline before they publicly questioned Trump. About half of the room said the market would have to fall 20 percent before they spoke out, while around a quarter put the figure at 30 percent, the Journal reported. A quarter responded that they didn’t see it as their role to take a public stand on economic issues.
“I’ve been struck by how fearful people are and how unwilling they are to speak out. That has just not been true in the past,” Bill George, ex-CEO of the medical-device company Medtronic, told the Journal. “They don’t want to get on the wrong side of the president and his constituents.”
Donald Trump, accompanied by Elon Musk, speaks next to a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
He said he has privately heard from a number of other CEOs that the political uncertainty makes it near impossible for them to make long-term investments. Many are worried about retaliation from Trump if they criticize him.
“What you’re hearing publicly is not what you’re going to hear privately,” George said.
A group of tech CEOs—from the likes of HP and Qualcomm—did raise concerns about the tariffs in a closed-door meeting with Trump on Monday, a person in attendance told the Journal.
Some CEOs feel that airing their concerns in private will make them less likely to become a target of Trump, the Journal reported. They also fear that if he faces public criticism, Trump will be inspired to double down on his trade wars.
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