CEOs Can Stop White House Attacks — If They Act Now
There’s strength in numbers. But the longer business leaders wait to respond, the weaker they get.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is the latest exec to get the Trump treatment on social media.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
On Saturday, President Donald Trump wrote a Truth Social post demanding that Walmart Inc. “EAT THE TARIFFS” rather than raise prices to reflect the increased costs caused by his trade wars. Walmart isn’t the only company Trump has gone after recently; Mattel Inc., the Boeing Co. and Apple Inc. have all been targets of the president’s threats.
For CEOs, these attacks make three things clear. One, economic realities will make it obvious that the tariffs were sold to the public on false pretenses. Two, the political blowback from this will lead Trump to make impossible demands of them. And three: No one can stand alone against the president. If business leaders want to protect themselves from his commands, they will have to keep in mind Benjamin Franklin’s advice: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall hang separately.”