CEOs say they are losing faith in Trump: “I don’t trust that what’s said today will be true tomorrow”

U.S. President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter during a news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Credit: Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

• In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady at the Yale CEO Caucus finds corporate leaders are miserable about Trump’s trade program.
• The big story: Ukraine accepts peace plan, but tariff war heats up. 
• The markets: A dead-cat bounce or the return of the bulls?
• Analyst notes from Wedbush on losing patience with Elon Musk, Goldman Sachs on downgrading U.S. GDP, and Convera on equities. 
• Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. How quickly CEO optimism has turned. I’m just back from the Yale CEO Caucus in Washington, where 100 CEOs gathered with 60 big-city mayors, policymakers, and journalists like me to talk off the record about “navigating Trump 2.0.” Gone is the optimistic dream of economic growth spurred by Trump’s pro-business mindset around taxes and regulation. In its place is the grave uncertainty of not knowing what this administration will do next. As the host, Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, noted afterward, the consensus was one of bewilderment, condemnation and a feeling that “Trump’s policies were bad for the U.S. economy.”