Amid news stories about large companies distancing themselves from President Donald Trump's White House for his controversial decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, a new POLITICO report suggests some CEOs are aware that the president has been using them for his own benefit.
Despite an upcoming tech summit, one anonymous liaison between big business and the White House expressed a lack of confidence in the Trump administration's ability to attract businesses to their event.
"It's like a Ponzi scheme – pretending you have people confirmed to get other people to confirm," the liaison told POLITICO. "It's a manifestation of the fact that the air is coming out of this balloon quickly because the policy proposals haven't been coordinated with the Hill, the expectation that anything will be done is rapidly dissipating."
The White House's tech summit, which is spearheaded by the president's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, was billed with the support of big names like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple's Tim Cook. With both of those CEOs now breaking from the White House, it's unclear if the Trump administration will be able to rely on corporate support in the upcoming midterms or in the 2020 presidential election.
"Alienating corporate executives and lobbyists could reduce Trump’s ability to raise money for an eventual re-election campaign and for other Republicans in the upcoming midterms," POLITICO's Ben White and Annie Karni wrote. "It could also make pushing through tough legislative items like corporate tax reform harder."
Read the entire report on Trump's waning relationship with corporate America via POLITICO.