Why more and more US CEOs support Trump's candidacy

Despite mixed feelings about Trump, more and more American CEOs support him because they find Biden's policies too left-leaning, that is, protecting labor rights and state intervention in the economy.

On January 17 at the Davos Forum in Switzerland, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said his bank would be fine with either Biden or Trump winning the election. "My company will survive and thrive on both," he said.

But what is notable is that this influential figure on Wall Street softened his tone when commenting specifically on Trump. "Honestly, he was right about NATO, quite right about immigration, growing the economy quite well, effective trade tax reform. He was right about some issues in China," Dimon said .

According to Le Monde , Jamie Dimon's comments are a boost to the trend of more and more major CEOs in the US changing their attitudes in the race to return to the White House in November with Trump. Between Biden, who pursues the most left-wing policies in half a century, and Trump, they "hate" Trump less.

"Dimon is the embodiment of a business community that has flown to Trump's rescue despite its mixed feelings about the candidate," the French newspaper commented.

Former US President Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 9. Photo: AFP

The most prominent example is Tesla CEO Elon Musk. "Musk's businesses align with Biden's priorities but seem friendly to Trump," former Democratic congressman Joe Cunningham said in the Wall Street Journal .

Tesla’s business aligns with Biden’s energy transition vision and interest in artificial intelligence. But the president has been unpopular with Musk for not inviting the Tesla CEO to a White House-hosted electric carmaker forum in 2021, citing the company’s refusal to allow unions.

As a supporter of the Democratic Party, LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman also criticized: "Organizing an electric vehicle summit without inviting Musk is ridiculous." In May 2022, Musk announced a break with the Democratic Party, which he accused of "causing division and hatred".

Musk's relationship with Trump has not been smooth in the past. In June 2017, the Tesla CEO was the first to resign from the CEO advisory group to Trump in protest of his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. In June 2022, Musk called on Trump to retire from politics.

The two only reconciled in March, after a party at billionaire financier Nelson Peltz’s Palm Beach home. Musk then stopped short of endorsing Trump but promised to continue badmouthing Biden, according to the Wall Street Journal .

In Silicon Valley - a technology business community that leans Democratic, Trump has recently won over more CEOs. His fundraising dinner in early June in San Francisco raised $12 million.

Jacob Helberg, a former Democrat who donated $1 million to Trump, said he has seen a turning point in the past six months. "In 2016, the number of people I knew from Silicon Valley who supported Trump was as few as Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal. Now I count dozens, if not more," he said.

Despite their uncertainty and skepticism toward Trump, some well-known CEOs are more sympathetic to him because they feel that Biden's policies are increasingly left-leaning, focusing too much on issues such as social justice, labor rights and state intervention in the economy.

Biden has accused big corporations of contributing to inflation by demanding high profit margins. He has waged a war on monopolies since taking office. Low-cost airline Spirit was on the brink of collapse when it failed to merge with Jet Blue, and home appliance company iRobot was hit by Amazon's acquisition ban.

Silicon Valley, which once devoted to Obama, must complain. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is dissatisfied with Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan, who has initiated many antitrust lawsuits against technology companies. He called that move an unethical exploitation of the law.

Biden also boasts that he is the most pro-union president in history. In September 2023, he attended a Detroit auto strike to gain the support of the United Auto Workers (UAW). The UAW then tried to unionize auto plants in the southern United States.

They succeeded at Volkswagen but failed at Mercedes. Automakers worry about the low-wage, non-union business model they maintain. Therefore, although they are concerned about Trump's threat to tax cars imported from Mexico, they are more willing to support him.

In addition, Mr. Biden began his term by directly attacking oil companies in the name of the energy transition. Before the re-election race, they disliked the president because he released oil from strategic reserves to lower gasoline prices and suspended gas export licenses for environmental reasons.

Meanwhile, Trump has bolstered his support in the oil industry by arguing that Biden’s electric vehicle policy will benefit China. Although he was wary of Trump, shale oil billionaire Harold Hamm donated $1 million to him last year.

The New York Times revealed that at a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in April, Trump asked oil companies for $1 billion and promised to reverse Biden's environmental regulations if elected. However, Trump's campaign team denied this information. Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying group for the oil industry, lamented: "It's time for the administration to stop playing politics with global energy security."

According to the results of a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted from June 20 to 25, the percentage of voters planning to vote for Trump reached 48%, 4 percentage points higher than Biden.

Fundraising numbers also show growing support for the former president. At the end of May, Trump's campaign received $116.6 million compared to Biden's $91.6 million. After Trump was sentenced in New York last month, the campaign even set a record for the largest online fundraising day, collecting $8.1 million on May 31.