The Washington Post reports that many leaders in the business community are not happy about the massive trade wars that have been launched by President Donald Trump, but that many are reluctant to criticize him publicly for fear of reprisals.
As one source tells the Post, many business leaders fear getting “Zelensky-ed” by Trump should they contradict him in public, which they worry could harm their companies’ prospects in an already uncertain economy.
One Republican business executive who was granted anonymity to speak freely said that they will not be making drastic changes to their business given that the Constitution has placed a hard limit on Trump’s time in office.
“The president’s not going to be around forever,” they said. “In four years, you have a different administration.”
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Nonetheless, some center-right figures were willing to go on the record to criticize Trump’s trade wars, which have sent the stock market falling and have led to economists slashing economic growth forecasts for the United States over the next year.
“What are they trying to do?” asked American Enterprise Institute economist Michael Strain. “They don’t have a strategy. They don’t have a clear goal for these policies… I think what we’re seeing is incompetence.”’