American companies have struggled to understand how Donald Trump responds to the trade war and are wary of speaking out for fear of retaliation by the White House, according to executives and board members.
Corporate leaders doubt how long Trump has stuck on his current course and hopes they can lobby him to ease some policies, and don’t know how far they should go when redesigning their business in response to Wednesday’s tariffs.
Complicating the issue is the horror environment created by recent targets at the White House law firm, including Paul Weiss.
“You don’t want to be a dog that bares for everyone else because you’re the one who’s going to be shot,” said one person who heads the board of directors of a US company.
Another executive on the Corporate Commission said the best approach is to personally assert Trump and his team that these policies could hurt his core ingredients through higher prices and unemployment.
“It would lobby Velvet gloves to his more thoughtful policy advisors, and that clearly includes Scott,” said another U.S. Committee official, referring to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent.
Those who heard the statement said Disney CEO Bob Iger raised concerns at an internal editorial meeting on ABC News on Thursday.
He said it would not be easy for us businesses to shift production to countries due to our specialized workforce and different skill sets across borders. Iger cited an example of Apple’s Foxconn facility in China, where the tech giant makes most of its devices.
Iger also warned that Disney itself would be affected. He said the costs for companies building cruise ships will rise as steel prices are likely to rise.
Trump’s tariff blitz and China’s retaliation unleashed the commodity market, with gross prices settling at a three-year low of $65.58 on Friday, with oil traders having no plans to turn down punitive trade measures by betting on the US administration.
On Friday, Shale’s massive Harold Ham, executive chair of Continental Resources, said he continues to support Trump and his efforts to rebuild US manufacturing by tackling unfair trade practices overseas.
“But it is also true that if you are producing oil and gas below the cost of supply, you can’t drill, babies, or train. Shale producers hope that the current market turbulence is a temporary situation, so they can bring the president’s agenda to unleash the president’s energy control.
Private equity executives, one of the largest companies in the industry, said many companies have created solutions to analyze tariffs, see the impact on bottom line profits, and prepare for the “liberation date” when the tariffs are announced.
However, the formula used by the White House to calculate tariffs was not close to people’s expectations, so that preliminary work was dumped.
Many investment companies plan or plan to outline their customs opinions to their clients. Many of them were foreign investors who were shocked by the scope and direction of taxation.
On Monday, the Carlisle Group will hold a “special global investment environment update” call with top investors, where co-founder David Rubenstein and two other executives are expected to outline the playbook to address tariffs.
Some corporate leaders appealed gently and did not underestimate the possibility that the market had overreacted.
“It was pretty harsh and dramatic, but we all know that stocks tend to overreact and underreact,” said Herman Bulls of Host Hotels, Fullence Energy and Comfort Systems, vice-chairman of commercial real estate group JLL and board director of the USAA.
“This is not a surprise in terms of direction,” the Bulls said. “This was talked about during the campaign and when he won.”
The tariff announcement came midway through the “Retail Roundup” meeting held in New York by JPMorgan Chase for retail managers, investors and analysts.
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Home Depot’s Chief Financial Officer Richard McFail was among executives who showed that tensions were potentially tense about turning tariff burdens into suppliers rather than US consumers.
“In normal courses, we’re constantly having conversations with vendors about costs,” he said. “When it comes to tariffs, it’s just another cost of the equation we have to understand each other.”
Another retailer suggested this week that it could switch from Asian suppliers to Latin America.
But the corporate advisor said there are too many questions left about US policy to help businesses commit to large-scale adjustments.
“We are pleased to announce that we are accustoms of PWC US, Kristin Bohl.
“It’s not even the first end. There’s too much uncertainty for the CEO to decide to pick up the operation abroad and move to Country B.”
Reported by Joshua Franklin, Stephen Foley, Anna Nicolaou, Antoine Gara, Jamie Smyth, Patrick Temple-West, and Claire Bushey
