Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump is not the only one to have enveloped a Visit of the Middle East In recent days. A private jet carrying the CEO of Nvidia dragged Air Force One to the region. Oil leaders and bankers also followed, while American leaders have abandoned everything – cancel long -standing obligations and zoom in the meetings of the board of directors at home – to comfort himself to Trump and strengthen the image he tried to sell during his first major foreign trip.
With Trump back to the White House, a getaway to the president or a stop at the Oval Office is now as routine for American business leaders as a speech at an industry conference.
Business titans spend more time than ever working for Curry the favor of the administration as part of their efforts to suspend the relief of the regulations – and the tariffs – of the transactional president. In turn, he is happy to use them as supporting the distribution members while he tries to project the economy as in full swing at a time when Growth slows down.
But spending time with the American president does not have fully isolated companies like Apple, Amazon,, Walmart And others of Trump’s anger. This is a sign that the public commitments they make to create American jobs could make more to sunbathe the image of the president than to protect their own profitability.
In private, the CEOs and the leaders of Trump’s trip amazed at the way they have become unofficial members of the president’s travel party, their private jets Hops through the Gulf While Trump visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. They said they had no choice but to get closer to Trump, especially since he exercises his pricing powers.
“I think we have a President of the United States who sells,” Trump said in Abu Dhabi, next to the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Tomislav Mihaljevic, and working in a excavation at his presidential predecessor, Joe Biden. “You think Biden would do it? I don’t think so. But I think it’s so important. I have to be a cheerleader for our country.”
The host countries and the White House gathered commercial conferences in a few weeks to give Trump a scene to show his agreement during the trip. Business leaders have signed partnership agreements and praised mutual investments almost as a performance for Trump and powerful ruling elites in the region, while using the opportunity to network and share their mutual perplexity that it was now part of their job portfolio.
Trump has shown that he is directing business to those who have inserted himself towards him – seek no further than his promotion of Tesla d’Elon Musk – and punishes those who do not, like Amazon during the first mandate and law firms, universities and a growing list of institutions in his second.
“He wants the vanity of people to kiss his ring,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, CEO of the Managing Director Institute of the University of Yale. He said that the behavior of CEOs, while obsequious, has often resulted in better treatment and free publicity in government.
It’s not just American business people who are concerned about us. On Monday, a French executive appeared at the Oval Office with Trump.
The president thanked the French luxury company of Bernard Arnault, LVMH, for the “sacrifice medals” made by his subsidiary, Tiffany & Co., while Trump presented them to the families of three deputies of the Sheriff of the county of Palm Beach, in Florida, who were killed in the function line.
The LVMH stock has decreased this year while prices threaten a business that sells everything, designer handbags in champagne. But Trump had only the most kind praise saying that Arnault’s son, Alexandre, who represented the company: “Thank you very much, Alexandre. I appreciate that you came from France.”
We don’t always know how to get the best
Compared to the Biden administration, the CEOs and the leaders of the most powerful Americans have felt forced to stay in frequent contact with the Trump team. But contact is not a guarantee of a significant influence with the president.
The leaders of several companies, insisting on anonymity to describe the private interactions, said that it was not always clear which, in Trump’s orbit, could at best relay their point of view on prices, regulations and taxes to the president. The secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, has become their favorite shift, but that did not completely immunized Trump’s attack companies.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon had a previously scheduled call on Saturday with Bessent, to become the target of Trump’s anger separately in an article on social networks in which the president said that the largest American retailer should “eat” the cost of his prices.
Trump in April called the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, who had attended his inaugural, after a report that the online point of sale was planning to display Trump’s prices ‘prices’ prices on the prices. Amazon had explored the possibility of its Amazon transport service, which competes with the discounters founded in China Temu and Shein, but had chosen not to do it.
The heads of General Motors, Ford and Stelllantis met Trump to describe how his prices would disrupt automation. Trump has given them alloys on indoor vehicles with foreign parts not covered by the American-mexico-Canada trade agreement, but he still has a 25% tax on imported steel and aluminum.
The president depicted his price changes last April as a temporary bridge so that car manufacturers increase production at the national level.
“We just wanted to help them during this short -term transition,” Trump said at the time. “We didn’t want to penalize them.”
CEOs are always to find how to influence Trump
Trump has repeatedly praised Apple after his commitment of $ 500 billion for investments in the United States. But the company also plans to move more iPhone production in India in response to the prices of China – and that Frustrated trump.
Speaking in Qatar, Trump recalled a conversation with Apple CEO, Tim Cook: “I said to him:” My friend, I treated you very well. You come here with $ 500 billion, but now I hear that you are building everywhere in India. I don’t want you to build in India. “”
On the other hand, the CEO and president of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, ended up influencing Trump’s pricing policies by going to television.
The April 9 banker was interviewed on “Mornings with Maria” by Fox Business Network while the financial markets were panicking due to Trump’s prices. Dimon said the markets would improve if Trump could negotiate trade agreements.
“Breathe deeply,” said Dimon. “Negotiate certain commercial transactions. This is the best thing they can do. ”
His statements resonated with Trump, who withdrew his prices later in the day at 10% reference so that negotiations can occur for 90 days.
Trump said later: “I watched Jamie Dimon on Maria Bartiromo’s show this morning, and he was very good.”
