Donald Trump's aggressive trade and tariff strategy has fractured the consensus among US corporate leadership, with powerful executives privately condemning what they view as unpredictable economic policy even as they maintain public loyalty to the Republican commander-in-chief.
Trump's tariff regime, deploying levies on imports worldwide under emergency powers and targeting China, Canada, and Mexico, has triggered deep unease among CEOs who worry that uncertainty and legal peril are imperilling long-term investment, supply chains, and America's economic standing. Courts have already questioned the legality of Trump's approach, even as global markets adjust to the shifting ground of US trade policy.
