CEOs of major companies are preparing for a second Trump administration, taking trips to Mar-a-Lago and contributing millions to his inauguration fund. WSJ's Chip Cutter explains corporate America's new strategy for engaging with the incoming U.S. president. Further Reading: -The CEOs Who Are Tearing Up the Policies Trump Hates -Corporate America Drew Back From DEI. The Upheaval Isn’t Over. Further Listening: -DOGE: The Plan to Downsize the Government -How One Business Owner Is Getting Ahead of Trump's Tariffs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened after Trump's 2016 victory?
After Donald Trump won the presidency in November, a flood of money started pouring into his inauguration fund.
We've seen one company after another really kind of follow a similar playbook for how to deal with this administration. And it starts by opening their wallets.
These donations are helping pay for stuff like galas and balls at the inauguration. And our colleague Chip Cutter has been following the money.
One executive after another has all decided to give a million dollars. Sort of name the company, name the big brand. McDonald's.
McDonald's gave money to this fund. Toyota. Joining other major auto companies like Ford and General Motors in making $1 million donation to President Trump. Boeing. Boeing gave money to this fund.
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Chapter 2: How are CEOs engaging with Trump this time?
Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, is also giving a million dollars to the fund. Walmart. Walmart.
Walmart gave money to the fund. Uber, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, the list goes on and on.
What are these companies getting for this money?
So these companies get some tickets to the inauguration. There is a candlelit dinner that will be attended by Trump and Melania Trump.
Actual things. Actual things. Spending that kind of money isn't unusual for companies to get in with a new administration. But this time feels a little different. Because some companies that had once slammed Trump are now cozying up to him.
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Chapter 3: What companies have donated to Trump's inauguration?
I think what has been striking this time is the level of shape-shifting that's happening. From what companies have done and said in the past and what they're saying now, companies see an opportunity. They realize that they need to be in Trump's ear, that now is the time. If you want to get your views in front of him, you need to do it now.
And as one person told us, the billionaires are coming around the mountain.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Leinbaugh. It's Friday, January 17th. Coming up on the show, corporate America comes around to Trump.
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Chapter 4: What has changed in corporate America's approach to Trump?
Back in 2016, many business leaders were caught off guard by Trump's victory.
Most of corporate America really didn't have a relationship with Trump then. You know, he was kind of a political unknown. And so a lot of executives didn't know what to expect.
You might remember one of Trump's early moves was to ask CEOs to join so-called business councils, panels meant to advise him on economic matters. The bosses of companies like IBM and Pepsi signed up. But the relationship was shaky.
And almost from the very beginning, there were issues. Companies like Ford and others all pushed back against Trump's early immigration moves in 2017.
Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
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Chapter 5: What advice is Nikki Haley giving to CEOs?
CEOs quickly got out there to say how much they objected to this in what was oftentimes called his Muslim travel ban.
Nearly 100 companies are joining the legal fight against President Trump's executive order on immigration.
Here's a rundown of many of the major ones. Nike, General Electric, Microsoft. And Charlottesville was the big one.
You will not replace us! It was a weekend of street battles and stark displays of racism exploding into a deadly act of domestic terror.
And it was Trump's comments that there were fine people on both sides, essentially, that really got CEOs upset. And after that happened, CEOs were almost tripping over themselves to get off of these councils and to distance themselves from Trump.
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Chapter 6: Why is Dolly Parton a model for CEOs?
This just in tonight, too, another CEO has quit the president's job council.
Brian Krasanich of Intel said he was resigning to call attention to the, quote, divided political climate. Merck's CEO, Kenneth Frazier, is resigning from the president's American Manufacturing Council.
In response to those resignations, Trump attacks some of the CEOs and eventually shut down the business councils. Also during his first term, Trump was quick to strike out at companies that did things he didn't like.
He was willing to be threatening. I mean, he would make jabs at Amazon's Jeff Bezos, calling him Jeff Bozo, for example.
Trump calling for a boycott of Major League Baseball and threatening Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola after their stand on Georgia's new voting law.
One company in particular really drew Trump's ire, Facebook, now known as Meta. Trump had accused its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of steering Facebook against him.
Trump published a coffee table photo book of his first term that showed him meeting with Mark Zuckerberg in the Oval Office. And that photo carried an ominous warning. The caption said, quote, we are watching him closely. And if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Because it's like with Trump, if things sour, all of a sudden you get a nickname and you get mentioned in the tweets and you get turned on.
you get turned on. That's what companies are afraid of. If Trump can sort of whip up a large segment of the American public against a company or change sort of a public view of a company, that freaks executives out. They do not want consumers to turn against them either.
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