In what world do Trump's tariffs make sense?

[summer_in_TX]

4. Corporations are cowering in the face of Trump's tariffs

Instead, he’s forcing American companies to toe the line and come to him for relief.

In today’s edition of Popular Info, Judd Legum reports that he contacted 100 corporate heads for comment on Trump’s policy and what it would mean for their business and the economy. Not one, not one of them, would go on the record.

How did Corporate America respond to Trump's tariffs? Popular Information contacted the 100 largest American companies by market capitalization. We asked a simple question: Do you support or oppose the tariffs Trump announced on Wednesday?

Answering this basic question did not require the companies to condemn Trump or his economic policies, as corporate leaders did under the Biden administration. It simply asked the company to express a position on a policy that, in almost all cases, has already destroyed a significant amount of shareholder value.

And yet, no company was willing to respond. Microsoft said it had "nothing to share." NVIDIA "decline[d] to comment." Eli Lilly and Gilead referred us "to PhARMA for industry perspective." The rest of the companies did not respond at all.

The silence of corporations in response to Trump's ruinous tariffs is evidence that the country is sliding toward autocracy. There is a widespread belief that government power will be used to punish critics. And there is skepticism that the laws restraining such abuses of power, including the Constitution, will be enforced.

https://open.substack.com/pub/popularinformation/p/trump-tariffs-corporations-cower