Former Sears boss says CEOs won’t challenge Trump’s tariffs out of ‘cowardice’—but the holidays are fast approaching, and ‘the party is over’

Young woman looking stressed while going through various expense receipts and bills after Christmas shopping. Planning budget, calculating expenses and managing financial bills at home (Credit: Olha Danylenko—Getty Images)

The former CEO of Sears Canada, Mark Cohen, says corporate America is “terrified” of President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war, but CEOs of big-box retailers are too afraid to speak out against it. 

“Few in industry are speaking out loud about [this], for fear of retaliation, which is a form of cowardice,” Cohen, who also retired as the director of the retail studies program at Columbia Business School, told Fortune. “They are frantically trying to figure this out,” he said, describing retailers and manufacturers calling him panicking under the pressure to rewrite forecasts, protect margins and renegotiate with suppliers.