Trump’s underwhelming business support
Number of Fortune 100 CEOs who donated to the Republican presidential candidate
There are zero Fortune 100 CEOs — a group that historically leans Republican — that have donated to former President Trump this election cycle, according to data compiled by Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.
Why it matters: It’s very easy to overstate how much America’s business establishment supports Donald Trump.
- Just because corporate America has serious issues with Joe Biden doesn’t mean they are in Trump’s camp.
By the numbers: Donations by CEOs of the country’s 100 biggest companies haven’t recovered since Trump became the Republican nominee in 2016.
- He also received no donations from the group when he opposed Hillary Clinton in 2016.
- In 2020, when he was running as the incumbent, Trump managed to pick up the support of two Fortune 100 CEOs.
- The last time a non-Trump Republican incumbent was running for president, in 2004, George W. Bush picked up the support of 42 CEOs.
Between the lines: Roughly two-thirds of CEOs are registered Republicans, but they’re not MAGA.
- “The top corporate leaders working today, like many Americans, aren’t entirely comfortable with either Mr. Trump or President Biden,” writes Sonnenfeld in a NYT op-ed.
- “They largely like — or at least can tolerate — one of them. They truly fear the other.”
The other side: Big-name investors seem to be more likely to support Trump than big-name CEOs.
- Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone is probably Trump’s most prominent investment world supporter.
- Susquehanna’s Jeff Yass — who holds a massive stake in TikTok’s parent company — was described recently by Bloomberg as “a former Never Trumper who’s recently softened to become an OK-Fine-Might-As-Well-Be Trumper.”
The bottom line: “Mr. Trump continues to suffer from the lowest level of corporate support in the history of the Republican Party,” writes Sonnenfeld.
