American business leaders remain silent on Trump's policies, only considering speaking out when the stock market plunges

Unlike Trump's first term, current American business leaders are publicly silent on the president's trade policies, despite expressing strong concerns privately. At the Yale CEO Caucus meeting, executives were shocked by news that the Trump administration might double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, but avoided asking sharp questions during a Q&A session with Trump at a Business Roundtable meeting hours later. Corporate leaders attending the Yale meeting included Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and Albert Bourla of Pfizer. In an impromptu survey, 44% of CEOs said they would only collectively voice criticism of presidential policy if the stock market fell by 20%, another 22% thought it would have to fall by 30% before they took a stand, while nearly a quarter believed that openly opposing government was not their responsibility. According to former Medtronic CEO Bill George, many corporate leaders fear that public criticism will make them targets for presidential attacks and encourage him to stick to his tariff agenda. Meanwhile, businesses' economic outlook has become gloomy; an IACPA survey shows that the proportion of executives optimistic about the US economy has fallen from 67% in last year's fourth quarter to currently 47%.