Memo to the Business Elite: It’s Time to Stand Up

The first reactions from chief executives to the second Trump administration were as varied as the companies they run. Some liked the promises of federal spending cuts, deregulation and a revamped trade agenda. Others worried about the direct costs of tariffs on their industries and signs of falling consumer confidence.

More than a month in, questions are mounting, and they’re getting sharp. American companies spent decades developing multinational operations relying on a web of economic trade agreements that fortified postwar America as the envy of the world. Much of that system is in doubt as the administration goes after allies more ferociously than enemies, including most recently the explosive Oval Office exchange between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. And with Mr. Trump backing off his vows of deregulation, and pushing for direct political control of regulators, the self-interest of American business has been awakened.

Given Mr. Trump’s threats to punish companies that cross him, chief executives are unsure how to respond. They’ve mostly been quiet. Company chiefs are not politicians, and shaping global treaties is not their day job. But the cost of inaction may be catastrophic. Erratic policy and questionable diplomacy will lead to an unfriendly business environment, a lackluster economy and shattered global trust, enhancing the appeal of China as a more stable partner.

Collective action — whether quiet or vocal — must be the answer. Alexis de Tocqueville, the French parliamentarian who studied American democracy in the early 1830s, saw such civic voices as sources of public confidence in our system, a kind of “social capital” as valuable as financial capital. Mr. Trump, who never ran a major company, desperately seems to want their approval.

Most chief executives are not protectionist, isolationist or xenophobic. Nor do they want to be seen as complicit in economic and social policies they find worrisome. In our hundreds of conversations with top corporate leaders, they tell us some version of, “We invest where there is the rule of law, not the law of rulers.”

Here is a sample of what they are saying to us: Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency are “driving the car off the cliff,” said one. Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump are demolishing the guardrails of government for their own gain, said another. A third anticipated passing along rising costs to customers. The president has lost their confidence. Executives are embarrassed talking to overseas partners. “I can’t keep apologizing with credibility,” said one.