First, They Came for the CEOs. Then, They Came for...
By The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
Corporate America, lawyer up. If you’ve done business with the Trump Administration, Democrats are coming after you next year.
That isn’t what most Democrats are saying before the election, but it’s part of the battle plan if they take one or both houses of Congress next week. Steve Elmendorf, the longtime Democratic operative, made that clear in a recent chat with independent journalist Brody Mullins.
“I think it’s not going to be purely ‘you gave money to the ballroom,’” said Mr. Elmendorf, who is part of a Beltway lobbying shop. “It’s going to be: ‘I gave $20 million to the ballroom, and then I went to DoD, and I got a contract from the government.’” Or: “I gave $10 million to the ballroom, and then I went to the Commerce Department, and Howard Lutnick gave me a tariff exclusion.”
That sounds accurate given the partisan times, and it shows the vulnerability of companies in this era of political industrial policy. Many CEOs may not have liked writing checks for the inaugural or White House ballroom. But they also figured they had little choice given how much leverage the government has over their business.
President Trump hosts 2020 roundtable with energy-sector CEOs. (Getty)
Did former Apple CEO Tim Cook really have a choice if he wanted an exemption from Mr. Trump’s China tariffs for electronics imports? Democrats say CEOs should have refused, but then they don’t answer to shareholders. Democrats will now put the CEOs in the dock both as part of their anti-corporate agenda and to make companies pay a price for cooperating with the Trump Administration.
Democrats will also investigate the White House and Trump family, but government officials can fight subpoenas in court on executive-privilege grounds. Not so private companies. “Congress is then going to go to companies, knowing that companies don’t have the protection from the courts of saying no,” Mr. Elmendorf told Mr. Mullins.
The message is that American businesses had better be preparing their answers and defenses now. As both parties politicize every corner of the economy, no company is safe from investigation or retribution.
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