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 College of Administration Professor Jeffrey Sonnefeld advised Fortune.
Solely two donated to Trump in 2020, and nil 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 degree of company help” within the Republican Celebration’s historical past, Sonnefeld stated. Knowledgeable by his shut expertise working with prime CEOs—he has led discussions with the heads of PepsiCo, Ford, UPS, Verizon, and IBM, to call just a few—Sonnefeld famous that a lot of them “despise” Trump’s social and financial insurance policies.
These CEOs, a bunch that’s often 65%–70% Republican, are “both enthusiastically or reluctantly” going to vote for Biden as a substitute, Sonnefeld added. He listed off about 30 prime CEOs, together with Melinda French Gates, David Ellison (son of Larry Ellison, the founding father of Oracle), and Reed Hastings, as Biden supporters.
The concept runs opposite to a number of current articles in main media retailers suggesting that enterprise leaders are flocking again to Trump after rejecting him in 2020. Final week, Trump met with dozens of prime executives and promised additional company tax cuts. Stephen Moore, one in all Trump’s closest financial advisors and (briefly) his nominee to move the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, advised Fortune that he attended the assembly and the CEOs have been “enthralled” by Trump.
Financial insurance policies
Nonetheless, Sonnefeld stated that prime CEOs consider that the proposed tax cuts are inflationary with out reductions in authorities spending, an concept that Moore rejected as “utterly silly.” Moore claimed that company tax cuts create extra demand for {dollars} by rising the worth of overseas funding.
“While you create extra demand for {dollars}, meaning the worth of the greenback will increase and costs fall relative to the greenback,” Moore stated. “That’s what occurred after the Trump tax lower.”
Latest financial analysis signifies that Trump’s company tax cuts did increase enterprise funding, however not practically sufficient for the extra development to “pay for” these cuts, as Trump’s group has lengthy claimed it might. The Congressional Funds Workplace estimates {that a} full extension of the cuts, which can start expiring in 2026, would price $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 stated that company tax cuts are extra of a priority for the ultra-wealthy, 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 help for stronger capital features taxes, which Sonnefeld opposes, are extra of a priority for the CEOs, he stated.
“No one’s saying that the Biden insurance policies are good, and there are some issues,” Sonnenfeld stated. “However they’re dwarfed by the pernicious menace to inflation, financial stability, and, most significantly, democracy offered by the possible Trump presidency.”
The CEO riseup of 2020
Many prime CEOs have been extremely disturbed by Trump’s rejection of the election outcomes, Sonnefeld stated.
On the evening of November 6, 2020, when Trump declared himself the winner, Sonnefeld says he acquired a manifold of texts and calls from apprehensive CEOs. They wished him to tug collectively a bunch of enterprise leaders to put in writing an announcement affirming that Biden was the election’s true winner.
“I figured everyone else on the market has cash, assets, and fame on the road, they usually should determine I’ve nothing to lose if it doesn’t work,” Sonnefeld stated.
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 just a few, 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 individuals surrounding them, brazenly condemned what occurred the evening earlier than.
“It was a really highly effective, open dialogue,” Sonnefeld stated. Performing because the scribe, he wrote down just a few factors from the group, first congratulating Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, then noting that if somebody challenges 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 January 6 riots, the group met once more and unanimously referred to as for Trump’s impeachment, Sonnefeld stated.
Moore declined to touch upon the group or its actions, saying he wasn’t acquainted with it. Nonetheless, he referred to as Trump the candidate for small companies, including that Biden is the candidate for giant enterprise and Wall Road pursuits.
“There’s little doubt about that,” Moore stated. 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 “way more favorably” on this election.
“It’s a special ball sport now,” he stated.
