Recently, there has been a rather clear sentiment in the American corporate world: anxiety.
Yes, big businesses generally welcome the deregulation promise and lighter tax bills that come with Donald Trump’s second president. But the accompanying uncertainty of Trump 2.0 puts corporate America slightly at the edge. The president is issuing executive orders at a fierce pace, but vague language, court battles and issues of legality mean that the importance of these orders is unknown. Trump has promised to go through a major shaking around tariffs and immigration, but how they actually manifest itself is in fluidity. Elon Musk is an equally destructive figure, with his Doge staff cutting at a rate that fires federal workers and plunders funds for various programs. Given the first month of the Bum Rush, many business leaders are rushing to benefit Trump. At least avoiding his rage.
In short, we are in an age of scary cat capitalism. American businesses are not moving boldly and quickly. I wait for the uncertainty to sway, and in the meantime I try not to draw too much attention to myself.
When Trump took office in 2017, many CEOs were wary of his immigration and climate policy. When Trump was launched in 2025, some of America’s most well-known corporate executives sat behind him. Large companies and leaders donated millions of dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund and visited the President’s Mar-A-Lago club. If companies are somewhat happy to sway a rebellious tone in 2017, the atmosphere this time is one of compliance.
In December, Disney-owned ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s future presidential library to settle the defamation lawsuit. Similarly, Meta cut contracts in January and provided $22 million to resolve the 2021 lawsuit. CBS parent company Paramount has refrained from settling the lawsuit Trump has filed in the “60-minute” segment so far, but some observers believe it is a matter of time before it folds. Pending acquisition by Studio Skydance. As my colleague Peter Kafka pointed out, these Trump lawsuits are usually not too far-off types. But now that he’s back in the White House, the risk compensation calculations are different.
“A strong company with a huge amount of legal resources decides it’s better to pay Trump than to fight him,” Kafka wrote.
When they try to quit Trump’s anti-DEI campaign, several companies are retreating from diversity, equity and inclusive efforts. Companies such as Target, Walmart and Meta have announced policy rollbacks. Others, such as GM, PepsiCo, Disney, and others have quietly x the Dei language and programs and take a subtle approach. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce elicited much information from its website in 2020 about the Opportunity Equality Initiative, which it announced “helps shut down the racial-based opportunity gap.”
This is not happening in a vacuum. The right to oppose DEI efforts in recent years has become increasingly vocal, and Trump has stated the opposite in overdrive and in writing. He attempts to eradicate private and public sector DEI practices, including banning government contractors from being involved with them and asking federal agencies to identify corporate targets for potential litigation surrounding DEIs. We have signed an executive order. According to Trump, the plan is to stop “illegal days.” It’s not clear what that means, and the underlying laws remained unchanged, but the companies were still nervous and had a calm effect. No one wants to be a government target. Or, you don’t want to draw conservative internet rage and become the next bad light. Agents may be looking for drooping fruits to set an example to scare others. And regardless of what the government does, negative publicity and social media campaigns are a threat of its own.
Business likes predictability, and that’s not what they’re trying to get from Trump.
Some business leaders reportedly remember some of the respected nature of Trump’s first term, including the president’s opposition to the AT&T-Time Warner merger, reportedly due to their complaints about CNN It might be. In an interview with Bloomberg last July, former CEO of American Express Ken Chenault cited it as a source of fear about Trump’s terminology for the second time. “Fear is real,” he said.
Daniel Kinderman, an associate professor at the University of Delaware, is studying business responses to right-wing populism, but says companies may regret working with Trump and bending quickly to his will. Ta.
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“What the government is doing is so radical that I think it’s going to be a shame that a lot of businesses are not on the bandwagon or far away,” he said. “It doesn’t reduce their risk.”
Nationally and foreign, it may give him an advantage in negotiations that Trump is perceived as a loose cannon. However, for business, it can be difficult to navigate.
“Companies that like predictability aren’t what they’re trying to get from Trump,” said Republican strategist Alex Conant, who was the communications director for Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign. “Trump is very unpredictable and creates a challenging business environment.”
In a memo on Tuesday, David Kelly, the leading global strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, said that policy uncertainty created by the Trump administration could slow economic growth, affect jobs and impact investments. He said there is. He pointed to the threat of tariffs, immigration crackdowns, federal workforce reductions, and uncertainty in the federal budget as a region where actions could be a source of business.
“The rapid pace of these movements, along with frequent reversals, court agendas and mixed signals on future policy actions, makes it difficult for economists to assess the cumulative impact,” he wrote. “And it’s even more important to analyze, and even more difficult, is the possibility that policy uncertainty can slow business decisions.”
For example, automakers look at the potential for steel and aluminum duties, import duties from Canada and Mexico, and mutual duties from trading partners. Plus, you don’t know what will happen with the tax credits on electric vehicles. It’s hard to know where to start and what to invest. At a meeting in February, Ford CEO Jim Farley said Trump’s move has created “a lot of costs and a lot of disruption” for the industry.
In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said retailers “will not be completely immune” from tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada. Customs duties on imports from China could also affect the company. He said “it’s far from certainty about geopolitical landscapes,” and that Walmart has not calculated tariff increases as annual financial expectations.
Companies are tasked with laying out different scenarios of what will happen next, reassuring shareholders that they are ready for the future. Elaine Buckberg, former chief economist at GM, had previously been in this situation. It’s a trade war with China that Trump kicked off during his first term.
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“I feel like I was basically doing the scenario with Chinese tariffs until Covid came and took all the attention,” she said. “We’ll prepare our presentation the night before and update it by the next morning.”
Backberg pointed to a 1983 paper by Ben Bernanke (who will chair the Federal Reserve) on investment decisions and uncertainty. “If there is this irreversible investment and there is uncertainty, I want to wait until the uncertainty is resolved,” she said. “And that means you need to expect a decline in business fixed investments that will undermine growth until this uncertainty is resolved.”
There is too much uncertainty right now to make meaningful decisions.
With Trump’s 2017 tax law expired, Congress and Trump will have to negotiate through at least one tax bill this year. Conant pointed out that the fight is more uncertain for businesses. Congress may aim to find ways to make money by eliminating tax credits, whether due to higher taxes on certain activities. It can also be a winner or a loser, and it can oppose a variety of industries to each other. “There are winners and losers, so I don’t think this time the business community will be unified in the end,” he said.
Certainly, businesses benefit from a lot of Trump’s actions, uncertainty and all. He has signed an order to suspend enforcement of foreign corrupt practices laws. The Trump administration is likely to be more hostile to unions than the workforce-friendly Biden administration and will likely take a handoff approach to regulations. Still, all of that anxiety remains a challenge.
“I’ve been in Washington for 15 years, and this is the most chaotic time, and there are a lot of surprises that happen every week,” says Nick Negro, founder of Atlas Public Policy, a Washington research firm. said. DC. “There is too much uncertainty for a meaningful decision to be made right now.”
The global economic policy uncertainty index, which tracks news reports of economic policy uncertainty, has risen sharply since the 2024 election. The National Federation of Independent Business Optimism Index was checked down in January, but it’s far above where it was during the Biden administration. A study by the Association of Home Builders found that a survey tracking emotions among home builders had declined in confidence in February. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell in February, and people began to worry about tariffs and inflation concerns being backed up. As Americans contemplate the landscape, optimism remains, but reality sinks, and it’s a bit unsettling.
A broad sense of anxiety is set up throughout the company. Companies don’t want to bring negative attention to themselves, even what may be taking into account diversity programs that many people drive. They don’t want to be the target of politically persuasive presidents and angry people online. Meanwhile, they manage the outlook that appears to be something could happen. Executive orders here, court battles there, migrant raids, new tariffs, x tax cuts. Emotions permeate through consumers and workers. If the federal government is taking a novel approach to the workforce, what is stopping businesses from filing lawsuits? Many companies are cutting their labor force. Many consumers wonder whether they should restock their items before tariffs take hold, and some are taking action.
Scary cat capitalism doesn’t mean panic mode, but it’s a scenario where everyone gets a little worried about what’s coming next.
Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider and writes about business and the economy.
