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No Fortune 100 CEOs \u2013 a group that has historically leaned Republican \u2013 have donated to Former President Donald Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign, Yale School of Management Professor Jeffrey Sonnefeld told Fortune.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Only two donated to Trump in 2020, and zero again in 2016, according to new data<\/a> from Yale\u2019s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, which Sonnefeld heads. By contrast, 28 Fortune 100 CEOs donated to Utah Senator Mitt Romney\u2019s 2012 campaign, and 29 donated to John McCain in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n The figure is just one indication that Trump has the \u201clowest level of corporate support\u201d in the Republican Party\u2019s history, Sonnefeld said. Informed by his close experience working with top CEOs \u2013 he has led discussions with the heads of PepsiCo<\/a>, Ford, UPS, Verizon<\/a>, and IBM<\/a>, to name a few \u2013 Sonnefeld noted that many of them \u201cdespise\u201d Trump\u2019s social and fiscal policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n These CEOs, a group that is usually 65-70% Republican, are \u201ceither enthusiastically or reluctantly\u201d going to vote for Biden instead, Sonnefeld added. He listed off about 30 top CEOs, including Melinda French Gates<\/a>, David Ellison<\/a> (son of Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle), and Reed Hastings<\/a>, as Biden supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n The idea runs contrary to several recent articles<\/a> in major media outlets suggesting that business leaders are flocking back<\/a> to Trump after rejecting him in 2020. Last week, Trump met with dozens of top executives<\/a> and promised further corporate tax cuts. Stephen Moore, one of Trump\u2019s closest economic advisors and (briefly) his nominee to head the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, told Fortune<\/em> that he attended the meeting and the CEOs were \u201centhralled\u201d by Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Sonnefeld said that top CEOs believe that the proposed tax cuts are inflationary without reductions in government spending, an idea that Moore rejected as \u201ccompletely stupid.\u201d Moore claimed that corporate tax cuts create more demand for dollars by increasing the value of foreign investment.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you create more demand for dollars, that means the value of the dollar increases and prices fall relative to the dollar,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThat\u2019s what happened after the Trump tax cut.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Recent economic research<\/a> indicates that Trump\u2019s corporate tax cuts did boost business investment, but not nearly enough for the additional growth to \u201cpay for\u201d those cuts, as Trump\u2019s team has long claimed it would. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a full extension of the cuts, which will begin expiring in 2026, would cost $4.9 trillion over 10 years, including additional interest on the debt. The federal government\u2019s publicly held debt stands at nearly $27.6 trillion, or roughly 108% of the GDP.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regardless, Sonnefeld said that corporate tax cuts are more of a concern for the ultra-wealthy, naming venture capitalist David Sacks and Timothy Mellon, the heir to the Mellon banking fortune, as constituents with interest in such cuts. Both men have supported Trump.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n If anything, Biden\u2019s antitrust policies and support for stronger capital gains taxes, which Sonnefeld opposes, are more of a concern for the CEOs, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNobody\u2019s saying that the Biden policies are perfect, and there are some problems,\u201d Sonnenfeld said. \u201cBut they are dwarfed by the pernicious threat to inflation, economic stability, and, most importantly, democracy presented by the prospective Trump presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n Many top CEOs were incredibly disturbed by Trump\u2019s rejection of the election results, Sonnefeld said.<\/p>\n On the night of November 6, 2020, when Trump declared himself the winner, Sonnefeld says he received a manifold of texts and calls from worried CEOs. They wanted him to pull together a group of business leaders to write a statement affirming that Biden was the election\u2019s true winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI figured everybody else out there has money, resources, and reputation on the line, and they must figure I have nothing to lose if it doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Sonnefeld said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He called 100 CEOs \u2013 the next morning, 94 of them showed up to a 7:00 a.m. Zoom<\/a> call to draft their points. The chief executives from Goldman Sachs<\/a>, Johnson & Johnson, and Walmart<\/a> were there, to name a few, the Financial Times<\/em> reported<\/a> at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sonnefeld declined to name any attendees, but he noted that the majority were Republican-leaning. Still, the CEOs, without their staff or press people surrounding them, openly condemned what happened the night before.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a very powerful, open discussion,\u201d Sonnefeld said. Acting as the scribe, he wrote down a few points from the group, first congratulating Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, then noting that if someone challenges the election results, they should be sued.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and others published that statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the January 6 riots, the group met again and unanimously called for Trump\u2019s impeachment, Sonnefeld said.<\/p>\n Moore declined to comment on the group or its activities, saying he wasn\u2019t familiar with it. However, he called Trump the candidate for small businesses, adding that Biden is the candidate for big business and Wall Street interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about that,\u201d Moore said. He added that, given how superior he believed Trump\u2019s economic policies to be compared to Biden\u2019s, all kinds of businesses now should view Trump \u201cmuch more favorably\u201d in this election.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a different ball game now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nEconomic policies<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The CEO riseup <\/strong>of 2020<\/h2>\n