Corporate executives were surveyed during Yale’s CEO Caucus in March, and when asked when they would collectively voice their concerns about President Donald Trump, most said it would take a 20% dip in the stock market.
According to the Wall Street Journal, 44% of CEOs said a 20% drop, 22% said a 30% decline, 10% said a 50% crash, and 24% said it’s not their role. While most CEOs have avoided public criticism of Trump when he rolled out his tariffs, the latest dip in the stock market might change that.
The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 have tumbled more than 20% from their 52-week highs, entering bear market territory. The S&P 500 is down 17%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off 15%. The losses might not be quite as steep if counted starting from Trump’s inauguration or when the poll was conducted in mid-March. Still, the two-day stock rout after “Liberation Day” wiped out $6 trillion in market cap and marked the worst meltdown since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
While some executives have reportedly voiced concerns behind closed doors, they are yet to voice them publicly. Yale School of Management’s professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who organized the March summit, told the Journal on April 5 that top CEOs have expressed frustration to him, but think trade groups should more forcefully oppose the tariffs or make collective statements. “They don’t want to be the lightning rod,” he said. “Then it becomes personalized to them.”
On April 2, The Business Roundtable said in a statement that it supports Trump’s goal of securing fairer trade deals but warned “universal tariffs ranging from 10-50% run the risk of causing major harm to American manufacturers, workers, families and exporters.” However, there are signs of opposition from corporate America.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who was working closely with Trump, appeared to break away from the White House on this issue, when he expressed hope for a “zero-tariff” system between the U.S. and Europe that would create “a free-trade zone.” Earlier on Saturday, Musk belittled White House official Peter Navarro, who was reportedly a key figure on the tariff policy, suggesting on X that his Harvard degree is “a bad thing” and that he has never built anything.
Tech journalist Kara Swisher posted on Threads, claiming that high profile tech and finance leaders were on the way to talk to Trump on the issue. Musk’s ventures are also bearing the brunt of Trump’s new tariffs and the visionary CEO himself is under criticism for leading the drastic cuts to federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).