Hedge your language. Don’t be too specific. Don’t say “Trump.”
For CEOs, speaking in public has become a tightrope walk. Say the wrong word, and it might tick off the White House.
As companies start to feel the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, especially the 30 per cent tax on Chinese goods, they have a responsibility to tell their investors how they will deal with the higher costs. For many companies, that means raising prices.
But Trump doesn’t want to hear that. So executives are speaking even more delicately than usual, including on the perfunctory quarterly earnings calls that are normally of interest only to Wall Street. Since Trump’s first term, corporate leaders have been wary of the president’s habit of taking to social media and singling out companies that he feels are working against his economic or political agenda.
Trump’s second term has brought a new intensity to the situation. Mattel, Ford Motor, Amazon and Apple CEO Tim Cook have faced his ire in recent weeks.
“Companies have got to reconcile with the fact that politics has penetrated nearly every element of their business and to bake those considerations in to prepare your CEOs,” said Brett Bruen, president of Global Situation Room, a consulting firm.
Those advising CEOs in this fraught moment say they are telling leaders to describe the financial impacts of tariffs in the gentlest way possible. Talk about the “fluid” or “uncertain economic environment” without naming the White House policy that created those conditions. Play up the opportunity to increase “productivity” rather than discussing the time and money spent figuring how to rejigger a company’s supply chain. And if something has to be said about tariffs, let the chief financial officer do it, not the CEO.
Last week, on an earnings call, Doug McMillon, Walmart’s CEO, thanked Trump for reducing tariffs on China but added that the retailer probably would not be able to “absorb all the pressure”.
Days later, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices.” He went on to demand that China and Walmart, “EAT THE TARIFFS.” He ended with the warning: “I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!”
Executives across corporate America are heeding that warning.