Why are titans of industry holding their tongues amid punishing Trump tariffs?

U.S. President Donald Trump tours the American Center of Mobility on March 15, 2017, in Ypsilanti Township, Mich. From left are, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, GM CEO Mary Barra, Trump, Ford CEO Mark Fields, and Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Mitt Romney infamously exclaimed: “Corporations are people,” too. The words further cemented the growing narrative of the former business executive as a champion of the rich.

Fast forward to 2025 and two-term president Donald Trump has amassed the single wealthiest cabinet in U.S. presidential history. Moreover, he’s given unfettered access and unchecked power to Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to shape the entirety of the executive branch as he deems.

However, despite conservatives' long-held affinity for so-called “job creators,” Trump 2.0 is changing the narrative with market-altering tariffs crashing down on America’s biggest allies. Meanwhile, the monied class and oligarchy remain eerily silent as their businesses, consumers, and precious stock prices brace for certain impact.

The White House has already implemented a 25 per cent tariff on all steel imported into the United States, with an additional 10 per cent tariff on all aluminum. This, even as America is by far the largest importer of steel and aluminum of any country in the world.

Not stopping there, President Trump is poised to enact an across-the-board duty on all goods coming from Canada and Mexico with an additional 10 per cent hike on all goods flowing from China. This, as Canada and Mexico remain America’s biggest trading partners.

The more than centuries-old relationship between the nations has seen U.S.-based companies flourish as a direct result of massive investments throughout Canada. In fact, more than $3.5 billion in goods move across the Ambassador Bridge that connects Windsor and Detroit every single day.

The entire private sector, ranging from small to multinational corporations, are facing massive losses, productivity decreases, mass layoffs and astronomical price hikes as a result of Trump’s trade war. Still many, if not all, of these companies continue to suffer in silence rather than protest their pending fate.

Canadian leaders continue to make trips to Washington and Mexico City are feverishly policing the southern border in a desperate last-ditch effort to stave off the tariffs; all to no avail. Yet, amid the booming chorus of despair, the key note missing from this symphony is the one that matters the most -- the business community.

The president has strategically placed captains of industry at the head of key agencies. Trump, along with Musk, has also moved with reckless abandon to eliminate regulatory controls paving the way for companies to grow profits faster unbound by government safeguards. Yet, as the president’s countdown to costly and damaging tariffs grows nearer, the one voice--perhaps the only voice with Trump’s ear--refuses to exercise its influence.

The early threat of pending tariffs sparked a massive sell-off of the global markets in February. However, a last-minute reprieve saw the markets rebound. Now, as President Trump threatens to follow through this time, these import duties, according to Congressional Research Services, will reduce the average American’s post-tax income by 1.7 per cent.

Moreover, if the White House maintains the rates outlined, Trump’s tariffs will be the highest taxes imposed on imports not seen since 1939. With higher prices and less disposable incomes, consumers and businesses on all sides of the border will feel the hurt. Still, silence from those with an actual seat at the table.

If either Canada or Mexico retaliates, U.S. fuel exporters would likely take the biggest hit alongside automakers and other advanced manufacturers, including pharmaceutical producers. Big Pharma is directly responsible for more than one million jobs with millions more supported indirectly. The automotive sector supports more than nine million jobs and accounts for more than five per cent of private sector employment. All of which is now in jeopardy as the Trump tariffs threaten to decimate the economy.

Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley said the steel and aluminum tariffs have so far added “a lot of cost and a lot of chaos” to American business. General Motors has cut inventory in its international plants by 30 per cent to 40 per cent in preparation of looming tariffs. However, if suppliers are affected, which is a certainty, that could portend even more chaos for U.S. automakers.

Global auto supplier Autoliv said it plans to pass on increased costs due to tariffs to the car manufacturers, “which will likely result in higher car prices in the end.” Higher prices that will lead to a downward spiral in the economy. Moreover, the White House’s frequent threats of various shapes and sizes to the tariffs have left executives, investors and consumers unsettled, leaving them unclear whether the latest salvos will come to pass, or whether exemptions could be carved out.

• Complete coverage of the Trump tariffs

The frustration is palpable as CEO David Gitlin of heating and refrigeration company Carrier stated, “There’s so much we don’t know. We don’t know if they will go in place. We don’t know if there will be exemptions at all.”

Nevertheless, it is these executives that are holding their tongues; quivering at the thought of what is to come; yet adamantly refusing to push back on a trade policy that affects every crevice of the economy.

The GOP, going all the way back to party savant Ronald Reagan, has deified the business community. Titans of Wall Street; C-Suite Executives; captains of industry; have all been set apart by the party of Lincoln.

The wealth that powers a nation and fuels the middle class is owed to the genius, innovation and risk-taking orchestrated by these gods of ingenuity. Set apart from politicians, they, not lawmakers, write the legislation that ultimately becomes law.

Tax breaks are balanced on the backs of the less fortunate so the uber-wealthy enjoy more, not less. But now the time has come for the CEOs, the venture capitalists, the industrialists, the entrepreneurs, to stand up; speak out; and push back.

Instead, the group Republicans have lauded for generations as the nation’s Alpha class has, in fact, through its fealty and acquiescence, revealed themselves to be nothing more than quivering Betas.

Eric Ham is a bestselling author and former congressional staffer in the U.S. Congress.