Staunch Trump Republicans on Collision Course with American Businesses

Republicans supporting Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back the election are on a collision course with American business leaders as companies reconsider supporting and funding politicians they see as a threat to national stability.

The decision of 13 Republican senators to join the majority of House Republicans in refusing to certify Joe Biden’s victory on Wednesday was quickly denounced by business groups, whose leaders expressed alarm at the threat it posed to a democracy. that most had taken for granted.

His action “undermines our democracy and the rule of law,” warned the US Chamber of Commerce, as a coalition of small businesses criticized the “shameful complicity” of elected officials trying to help Trump “undermine the will of the voters. “.

Attempts to thwart the orderly transfer of power to Biden were “contrary to the essential principles of our democracy,” added more than 180 New York executives, including Julie Sweet of Accenture, Larry Fink of BlackRock and Henry Kravis of KKR.

In a timely manner, several of the statements argued that indulging in unfounded conspiracy theories, including that Biden only won thanks to massive voter fraud, was bad for business at a time when executives want Washington to address the economic fallout of Covid-19. .

Sowing more distrust in the political system “threatens the economic recovery. . . our country desperately needs it, ”said the Business Roundtable, which is chaired by Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart.

Richard Edelman, director of the public relations group of the same name, said: “The CEOs are scared. They don’t like the idea of ​​America being a banana republic. “

An analysis by the Financial Times found that the 13 senators who supported Trump’s latest effort to hold onto power have been funded by some of America’s biggest corporate names. Together they received nearly $ 2 million during the 2019-20 election cycle from the political action committees of companies like Koch Industries, Berkshire Hathaway, UPS and AT&T.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management who convened 33 top executives Tuesday to discuss how companies should respond, said there was “universal outrage” among a group that generally spanned the political spectrum.

In a poll conducted during the call, 88 percent said officials supporting Trump’s position were “aiding and abetting sedition”; just over half said they would consider cutting investment in senators’ states; and 100 percent said that companies should warn lobbyists that they would no longer fund politicians who deny election results.

“These business leaders are certainly not going to invest in the divide,” Professor Sonnenfeld told the FT.

Senators who should know better were “playing with fire,” added Tom Glocer, Morgan Stanley director and former Thomson Reuters chief executive. “If people are going to think twice about this political opportunism, we have to get the only thing that matters to them right”: campaign contributions.

However, some lobbyists in Washington cautioned that they did not expect a fundamental shift from corporate giving to Republican lawmakers who have embraced Trump’s challenge to an orderly transition.

They noted that corporate support is based on other issues that are important to them and predicted that companies would wait to see the confirmation scandal unfold. They added that controversial incumbent senators supporting Trump’s efforts might be preferable to potential primary challengers on the right.

Still, companies may face external pressure on their financial support for politicians who are pushing claims of voter fraud that have been rejected by a succession of courts and state officials.

Steve Schmidt, one of the founders of The Lincoln Project, warned Sunday night that the Republican-led Bush-era political action committee would turn its fire on corporate donors who professed their support for racial equality while funding politicians. seeking to “cast millions of black votes.” ”.

In a series of tweets, Schmidt threatened that his well-funded group would not only draw attention to corporate political spending, but would “foment employee and shareholder rebellions” in its effort to “strangle the flow of money” to the Trump Congress. sympathizers.

Such pressure could involve many of the most prominent US companies, prompting further accusations of corporate hypocrisy. The FT’s analysis found that more than 20 members of the Business Roundtable, including EY, FedEx, Goldman Sachs, and Microsoft, have funded at least one of the senators that the group’s statement implicitly criticizes.

Despite his statement denouncing efforts to overturn the election result, the US Chamber of Commerce declined to say whether it would make the certification of votes a litmus test for its future endorsements in Congress.

“That means there are no consequences for a representative or senator who ignores the [request]”Said Bruce Freed, president of the Center for Political Accountability, which tracks corporate contributions. Still, Freed said that companies face “a moment of truth” regarding their political spending.

“They are signing up for Business Roundtable statements. . . but their political dollars haven’t changed, ”he said, predicting investors would ask tougher questions on the subject at upcoming annual meetings.

Daniella Ballou-Aares, executive director of the Leadership Now Project, agreed that there had been “a sea change” in the concerns of the executive directors, following the announcement of the senators and the disclosure of Trump’s call that pressured the secretary of state of Georgia to “find” additional votes to reverse its electoral defeat in the state.

Businesses were interested in solving problems, and many now questioned the return on their investment in politicians who showed little interest in finding a bipartisan deal, Ballou-Aares added.

“If I were a government affairs office now, I would like to ask for a refund if I had supported those candidates,” Ballou-Aares said of Republicans planning to challenge the election result.

“Regardless of what you think about business investment in politics, I think few companies thought when they were writing their checks that they were giving license to undermine democracy.”