US business titans begin to turn their backs on Trump

NEW YORK — The honeymoon is definitely over. When United States President Donald Trump was elected last November, big business rejoiced.

In June, optimism among American CEOs was at a three-year high on hopes that Mr Trump would succeed in implementing his pro-growth agenda, including tax cuts.

But he has now lost support from several executives who have left an advisory panel on manufacturing over his response to a violent white supremacist rally in Virginia — a sign that big business is disenchanted with the billionaire leader.

The head of the powerful American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations union Richard Trumka added his name to the list of defectors that includes the heads of Merck Pharmaceutical, Under Armour and Intel, as well as the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

“We cannot sit on a council for a president who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism,” said Mr Trumka. “We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups.”

The president, never one to shy away from controversy, fired back. “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place,” he tweeted. “Grandstanders should not have gone on. Jobs!”

But there was a definite feeling that other shoes were ready to drop.

Economist Joel Naroff said he suspected more would like to protest, but are “caught in a bind”.

“On one side, their job is to maximise the return to the shareholder. On the other side, they can’t be blind to the social implications of their companies’ actions,” said Mr Naroff.

In the early days of the Trump presidency, which began in January, most of the signs from big business were positive.

The Manhattan real estate tycoon-turned-world leader ran as a friend of the business community who pledged tax cuts to streamline regulations and take other steps to boost growth in the world’s biggest economy.

But discontent surfaced in January, when Apple chief Tim Cook and others criticised his controversial travel ban. Then, in June, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Disney’s Bob Iger quit from White House advisory panels over Mr Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate deal.

Mr Trump’s business agenda has faced other obstacles during his six months in office, and it was not clear that a downward turn in his popularity among blue-chip industry leaders would hinder his progress.

But executives are certainly facing a tough choice on whether to stay in the camp of a president who has overall low approval ratings — but also has a passionate following among a majority of Republican voters and tax plans they favour.

Activists are aggressive on both sides on the issue.

The anti-Trump #Grabyourwallet — which boycotts companies that sell Trump products — regularly prods its 62,300 Twitter followers to email companies that still have CEOs on White House panels.

On the conservative side, groups such as the National Centre for Public Policy have lambasted executives for criticising Mr Trump.

Mr Charles Elson, an expert at the University of Delaware in corporate governance, said those who stay on as White House advisers would likely benefit.

Those who leave Mr Trump’s informal circle of advisers are “making a non-partisan group more partisan”, he said. “By stepping down, they lose the influence they could have.” AFP