Despite his pro-business rhetoric on the campaign trail, some American executives are skeptical over the country’s economic future under President Donald Trump.
Amid federal workforce layoffs and concerns about the economic impact of his trade policies—which have already sparked panic in the U.S. stock market—several CEOs have voiced doubts about the president’s agenda.
Why It Matters
Trump’s campaign promises to roll back regulations and foster innovation garnered him support from many in the business world, including major industry leaders. The CEOs of Apple, Google and Amazon were front row at the president’s inauguration, and a key part of his administration has been the heavy involvement of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
However, experts have raised concerns about the health of the American economy, warning that the outlook for U.S. businesses and consumers may be bleak, a sentiment shared by many industry executives.
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What To Know
CEO concerns are largely centered around the president’s on-again, off-again tariff plans, some of which have been enacted but others subject to temporary pauses and last-minute sector-specific concessions.
Struggling to adapt to announcements regarding trade, and whether to treat them as threats that may not evolve into policy, has frustrated Hassane El-Khoury, CEO of ON Semiconductor.
“You can’t move a factory overnight,” Khoury told Semafor. “It takes four years to build a [semiconductor fabrication] plant.”
On the real impact of tariffs on foreign imports, Ford CEO Jim Farley said that 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico would “blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen,” and that what he had witnessed from the administration so far had been “a lot of costs and a lot of chaos.”
His comments, made during a recent conference in New York and shared with the New York Times, echo those made by Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors.
“With respect to possible tariffs, we are working across our supply chain, logistics network and assembly plants so that we are prepared to mitigate near-term impacts. Many of these actions are no cost or low cost,” Barra said during the company’s most recent earnings call in January. “What we won’t do is spend large amount of capital without clarity.”
Ford and General Motors were among the automakers handed a one-month exemption to Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
Despite these concerns, many CEOs are still optimistic about the impact of Trump’s policies on the U.S. economy.
During the Bloomberg Invest conference this week, Cathie Wood, CEO of global asset management firm Ark Invest, said that Trump’s policies would usher in a business boom similar to the “golden age” experienced during Ronald Reagan’s administration.
What People Are Saying
Steve Cohen, billionaire investor and founder of Point72 Asset Management, during a recent conference in Miami: “I mean tariffs cannot be positive. I mean it’s a tax, and you can imagine tit-for-tat, if the US does something implements a tax on somebody, somebody else is going to perhaps raise the stakes and raise their tax back.”
“On top of that we have slowing immigration, which means the labor force will not grow as rapidly as previous—over the last say five years. And in addition, now you have DOGE. And you know wherever you lay on the DOGE issue, I mean that’s austerity, and austerity—you know when that money has been coursing through the economy over many years and now potentially will be reduced or stopped in many ways—has got to be negative for the economy.”
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Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, according to Reuters: “The uncertainty and chaos created by the tariff dynamics between us and our allies is an impediment to growth.”
Costco Chairman Tony James, former Blackstone president, told CNBC in late February: “The uncertainty coming out of Washington is causing businesses to slow down. There’s a lot of uncertainty and a lot of variability. And it’s very hard if you’re a business to plan right now. We own a fertilizer company that sells a lot into Canada. We were going to build a new plant. Now we’re holding off.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Semafor: “There isn’t a serious CEO in America who would prefer the disastrous, negative-growth policies of the previous administration over the pro-growth, low-tax and low-regulation policies of President Trump.”
What Happens Next
Trump is set to host a meeting with several CEOs early next week, according to Bloomberg, including executives from HP, Qualcomm and Intel. A spokesperson for HP confirmed that the topics of discussion will include trade policy and manufacturing.
