Former president Donald Trump will appeal to some of the world’s most powerful corporate leaders on Thursday, albeit with some notable interruptions.
Besides Trump, President Joe Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zientsthe president will speak to CEOs in Biden’s place as he is in Italy for the G7 meeting.
spokesperson for Business round table He said he expects “about” 100 of the more than 200 chief executives who belong to the exclusive forum to attend Thursday’s quarterly meeting in Washington.
CNBC contacted each of the more than 200 companies whose CEOs are listed online as members of the Business Roundtable to ask if they planned to attend Thursday’s meeting.
Only 17 would confirm whether the company’s CEO was present. The rest – more than 180 companies – did not respond to emails for several days.
So here’s what we know: Of the 17 corporate spokespeople who responded to CNBC, four said their CEOs plan to attend: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Edison International CEO Pedro Pizarro.
Another 13 said they would not see their CEOs speak to Trump and Zients.
Black stone Group CEO and Trump ally Steve Schwarzman, Goldman Sachs CEO David Suleiman, Steel cord CEO Sara Armbruster, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, Delta CEO of Airlines Ed Bastian, Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Peake and the company’s executive chairman James Gormanand Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good according to the representatives of the company, he is among those who did not participate in the conference.
Some, such as Armbruster, Goode and Solomon, are absent due to scheduling conflicts and travel. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadellafor example, it is reported that he will be at the G7 summit in Italy.
Representatives for Woods and Bastian did not respond to questions about why their CEO did not attend the meeting. Representatives for Fink and Nadella did not respond to requests for comment.
The list of attendees could read like a list of which CEOs are willing to travel to Washington to hear Trump — and which aren’t — just weeks after his conviction. New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump’s comments to the group may also suggest a split-screen comparison Biden said in his speech to the CEOs He participated in the Business Round Table meeting held in March 2022.
As the president campaigns for re-election, he is working on the Biden administration’s report on aggressive antitrust enforcement and bans on so-called “garbage fees” that companies pay for services that cost the company nothing.
Those policies have angered some business leaders, rooting them for a second Trump administration and the deregulation it might bring.
Behind closed doors, however, Biden has shown his efforts for the court corporate America. The president meets regularly CEOs and industry leaders to discuss the post-pandemic recovery of the US economy and the global situation.
Republican former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, of California, said the willingness of busy CEOs to come to Washington to face Trump is a function of the tight presidential race.
“I think so [CEOs] look at what everybody sees, he’s going to win,” McCarthy said on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday.
For some CEOs who plan to attend Thursday, the choice to attend represents a shift in their attitude toward the former president. Following the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, several top leaders have acrimoniously split with Trump, either publicly or privately.
Last year, Dimon told attendees at the New York Times’ DealBook conference that they “must help” Trump’s rival, the former UN ambassador. Nikki HaleyHe won his primary fight against Trump.
If Haley did well, he said, voters “could make a better choice on the Republican side than Trump.” Former president he replied tearfully Dimon called him an “overrated globalist” on social media.
But just two months later, Dimon changed his tune.
“Take a step back, be honest. [Trump] He was kind of right about NATO, he was kind of right about immigration. He developed the economy quite well. Trade tax reform worked. He was right about some of China.” Dimon He said this during the World Economic Forum held in Davos.
Trump has laid out a second-term economic agenda that many economists believe could reheat inflationa scary prospect for investors and consumers who have been anxiously waiting for the Federal Reserve to respond to cooling inflation by cutting interest rates over the past year.
The former president also proposed extending the first-term tax cuts beyond their 2025 expiration date and imposing tough tariffs on all imports, especially those from China.
Speaking at Davos, Dimon suggested that his willingness to defend some of Trump’s policies was at least partly to avoid a scenario where he or JPMorgan Chase would end up on the bad side of the notoriously vindictive Trump.
“I have to be ready for both [Trump and Biden to win]” he said. “I will be ready for both. We will deal with both.”