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Little by little, they began to come out.
After days of market turmoil, the American billionaire has done most of what his top boss has done this week since Donald Trump took office in January.
They said Trump’s sweeping tariffs are “massive policy mistakes” born out of “silly” that could cause “economic nuclear winters,” and in some cases “bulk.”
I’ll talk about gear shifts. Until this moment of sale in the market, businesses all over the United States showed an astonishing level of respect for Trump’s agenda.
It’s hard to say if this will change after his tariff retreat, but what’s clear is how difficult it is to deal with the management that lies in overturning the usual rules of business engagement.
First, there’s a simple confusion.
Last week I spoke with Nneka Chiazor, head of the Washington State Council of Public Affairs.
She returned from meeting some of her members in Brussels. He said, “Can I still say ‘green’? “I pasted questions like “. “Is “clean” still okay? ”; “Is it okay to participate in (New York) Climate Week?”
“People are struggling with how to respect the US administration,” she said, respecting their commitment to clients and other stakeholders.
That struggle is even more difficult when you see how difficult it is to make a U-turn on measures that have defended businesses not chime with the Trump administration.
“Everyone seems completely hypocritical and undirected,” said Professor Alison Taylor, author of New York University’s Higher Ground. “It has the effect of making something that they say looks completely incredible.
Then there are economic risks.
The number of shoppers visiting Target Stores fell for the ninth consecutive week as retailers triggered a boycott of customers in a January statement. This is shown by Aai Analytics Firm, which shows that it is being pulled back from a long-selling diversity initiative.
In contrast, Footfall continues to grow at Costco, where Costco fought against shareholder proposals aimed at undermining its diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Of course, correlation is not causal. Many other factors can explain the difference.
Target’s confidence and limbility score (the main measure of reputation) fell to its four-year low in the first quarter of this year. However, caliber studies show that they continue the downward trend that began several years before the target diversity recedes.
Additionally, caliber studies of 10 large US companies, including Target, Walmart and Apple, have shown little or no change in confidence scores since the last quarter of 2024, whether they removed or defended diversity measures.
However, employee trust is another matter.
Consider hundreds of peers from the world’s largest law firms who have signed an open letter denounced targeting the administration of opposing corporations.
Imagine how they felt when some of their businesses cave down
Companies say, “Where do you sign? Where can I sign?” Trump marveled at the White House last month. “No one can believe it.”
perhaps. History suggests that no matter how high the stakes are, businesses are not pioneers of political resistance.
Dutch journalist David de John says in his long-standing research for the 2022 book Nazi billionaire, he encountered two examples of major industrialists or businesses that oppose Nazi Germany. Robert Bosch, founders of the Engineering and Technology Group of the same name, and Steel Tycoon Fritz Thyssen.
Charles Hecker’s 2024 book Zero Sum offers another lesson about foreign companies that have been doing business in an increasingly authoritarian Russia.
For one example, senior European executives have revealed that the headquarters of these companies are “waving their fingers” about Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, urging Russian offices to promote sales next year.
The United States in 2025 was not Russia in 2014, let alone Germany in 1930s.
The same goes for the US company, bent into a regime that rarely decides to bring its enemies to the heels, is following a familiar path.
pilita.clark@ft.com
