During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump ran on a message of economic populism but also promoted himself as pro-business. And that messaging worked: Trump narrowly defeated Democratic rival Kamala Harris by roughly 1.5 percent with support that ranged from working-class voters to business CEOs.
Investment adviser Steve Rattner, who served as a counselor in the U.S. Treasury Department under former President Barack Obama and is now an economic analyst for MSNBC, discusses his conversations with business executives in an op-ed published by the New York Times on March 3.
Many of them, Rattner stresses, have issues with Trump’s management style but still support him because they view him as business-friendly. But the former Obama Administration official argues that they may come to have buyer’s remorse in the months ahead.
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A tech investor, Rattner notes, recently told him that the “macro trumps the micro” where the president is concerned.
The investor said, “I’m willing to sacrifice small things for larger gains. I’m a fan of the ideas; I’m not always a fan of the execution.”
“The ‘macro’ was a reference to the main factor that drove centrist businessmen toward Mr. Trump in 2024: a belief that both the spending and the regulatory tilt of the Biden Administration were out of control,” Rattner observes. “And they resented how Joe Biden kept bashing big companies. This animus was so intense that even the strong economic gains of the past four years couldn’t get most of them to back Kamala Harris.”
Rattner adds, “While very few businessmen have been publicly praising the president and his actions, in private, many of them voice support for him…. The business community is also heartened by the number of corporate executives who have been brought into the administration, in stark contrast to the Biden team, which was almost bereft of such individuals.”
Rattner wonders, however, if the CEOs he is talking to will sour on Trump.
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“Consumer confidence dropped in February at its fastest pace in three and a half years, to its lowest level since June 2024, and expectations for inflation over the coming 12 months rose to 6 percent — the highest level since May 2023,” Rattner explains. “Mr. Trump has also begun to slide in the polls and is now underwater, with more Americans expressing disapproval than approval.”
The former Obama official continues, “We are in an economic tug of war between the optimism felt by investors and executives and the worrisome potentialities of Mr. Trump’s incoherent policies. My business friends may yet come to regret their support for the president.”
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Steve Rattner’s full New York Times op-ed is available at this link (subscription required).
