CEO Frustrations With Trump Over Trade Mount—in Private

BY CHIP CUTTER AND LAUREN THOMAS

WASHINGTON—How business leaders talk about the Trump administration in private has been markedly different from what they are game to say in public. The dissonance was on full display here this week.

Early on Tuesday, dozens of corporate executives and oth--ers assembled at a Yale CEO Caucus not far from the White House just as news emerged that the Trump administration planned to potentially double tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada.

Those in the room responded with a mix of groans and shocked laughter.

“There was universal revulsion against the Trump economic policies,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, who organized the invite-only summit that included corporate bosses such as JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, billionaire Michael Dell and Pfizer’s Albert Bourla. “They’re also especially horrified about Canada.”

That sentiment wasn’t apparent hours later, when many of the same chief executives from the Yale event attended a question-and-answer session with President Trump at the Business Roundtable. There, the exchange was largely cordial and executives didn’t ask the president any pointed questions about his tariff strategy, according to people with knowledge of the event.

Some business leaders have cited the need for a stable approach to policy. “Swinging from one extreme to another is not the right policy approach,” Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth said to an energy conference in Houston on Monday. “We have allocated capital that’s out there for decades, and so we really need consistent and durable policy.”

Others have limited their remarks to the costs of tariffs on their industries. Alcoa’s boss said steel tariffs would cost

thousands of U.S. jobs, while Target’s CEO warned that proposed tariffs on Mexico would quickly push up grocery prices.

At an Economic Club of Chicago event last month, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said some consumers were exhibiting signs of economic stress.

Yet as the stock market nears correction territory and companies rush to stockpile goods and scramble supply chains, few are complaining openly and directly about the president’s trade strategy. That is a departure from the public stances CEOs often took during Trump’s first term, on issues ranging from immigration to climate policy.

Impromptu poll

In an impromptu poll at the Yale event, the CEOs made it clear that things would have to worsen significantly before they publicly criticized the president. Asked how much the stock market would need to decline for them to speak out collectively, 44% said it would have to fall 20%. Another 22% said stocks would have to fall 30% before they would take a stand.

Plenty want to say nothing under any circumstances: Responding to the same survey question, nearly a quarter of CEOs said they didn’t see it as their role to publicly push back against the administration. On questions about national security, CEOs were more open to critiquing Trump, a Republican.

Other CEOs there included Gap’s Richard Dickson, Duke Energy’s Lynn Good and Glenn Fogel of Priceline parent Booking Holdings. The new chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Andrew Ferguson, also made a brief appearance.

A day earlier, CEOs from International Business Machines, Qualcomm, HP and other technology companies met in the White House’s Roosevelt Room with the president and his top advisers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some of the CEOs voiced their concerns about Trump’s tariffs, warning they could hurt their industry, according to a person who attended the meeting.

One reason for the muted critique in this Trump term is that many business leaders welcome Trump’s promises to push deregulation and lower taxes—and hoped the tariff threats would mostly serve as a short-lived bargaining chip, some CEOs said.

Some corporate bosses said they believe they can have more of an impact in talks behind closed doors, rather than in public. They worry public criticism will make them a target of the president’s bully pulpit and prompt him to dig in, not retreat, from his tariff agenda, they said.

“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,” said Bill George, a former CEO of medical-device company Medtronic, who remains in touch with executives across industries. “They don’t want to get on the wrong side of the president and his constituents.”

A single critical voice might also not be enough to make a difference, former Trump administration officials said.

“Trump listens to a chorus, not just one individual,” said Reince Priebus, who served as chief of staff during Trump’s first White House. Priebus was hired this week to be a senior adviser at Centerview Partners to help the boutique investment bank’s clients navigate the new political landscape.

The public silence is an about-face from Trump’s first term, when CEOs often acted as a counterweight to the president’s immigration policies or inflammatory rhetoric— often on topics that didn’t directly relate to business matters.

A parade of top executives, led by then-Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, resigned from White House advisory councils after Trump’s equivocating response to racially charged protests in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. Even Elon Musk quit an advisory council to the president that year after Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

“Now they’re hiring firms to get involved in the Trump administration,” Priebus said. “The traditional corporate view that companies could ignore what’s going on in Washington has been shattered.”

Dimming outlook

Business leaders’ economic outlook has dimmed since the president imposed some tariffs in early February while delaying others. In a survey of more than 300 executives conducted last month, 47% said they were optimistic about the U.S. economy, a 20 point drop from the 67% who voiced optimism in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the Association of Intern a t i o n a l Certified Professional Acc o u n t a n t s , which conducts the quarterly survey.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said business leaders have responded to Trump’s economic agenda with investment commitments that will create thousands of new jobs. “President Trump delivered historic job, wage, and investment growth in his first term, and is set to do so again in his second term,” Desai said.

George, the former Medtronic CEO, said several business leaders he has spoken to in recent weeks have said it is nearly impossible to make long-term investments, projections and decisions with so much uncertainty in Washington. Many worry about what could happen to their businesses if Trump and his officials attack them, a reason some companies have considered legal settlements with Trump or other moves to win his favor.

“The mood has totally changed,” George said. “What you’re hearing publicly is not what you’re going to hear privately.”