President Donald Trump asked top CEOs for their solutions on how to navigate affordability for Americans while apparently forecasting an economic boom in the U.S. that he compared to the Reagan and Clinton eras.
The president held a private dinner at the White House on Wednesday with several top CEOs from Wall Street and corporate America, including JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon, Larry Fink of Blackrock, Ted Pick of Morgan Stanley, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq’s Adena Friedman and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, according to The New York Post. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were also there.
“He spoke a lot about affordability and what we can do from a market perspective to address it,” one CEO told The Post.
Although Trump did not refer to it as an "affordability crisis," he did notion to the CEOs that Americans are struggling and that he's looking for help to improve things.
"The CEOs didn’t confront Trump on his prediction, which is far higher than most optimistic forecasts, including the 4% growth outlook from the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank. But privately, many had doubts given the current economic headwinds," The Post reports.
Some CEOs told the outlet that even Trump's own economic advisers are skeptical that this growth could happen, voicing their concerns over the 2026 midterm elections after the Democratic governor victories in New Jersey, Virginia and Zohran Mamdani's mayoral election in New York City.
“I sure hope the president is right about 6% growth,” another CEO said in an interview with The Post. “But I don’t see how we get there. His people are worried as well particularly about affordability but they won’t tell him. He’s surrounded by a lot of ‘yes men.'”
Some of the CEOs suggested opening up the markets for people to put their retirement savings in the stock market. Based on what's happened in the past, this could yield high returns for investors compared to other assets.
“Trump is really interested in making sure we have an economy of owners, not renters with all their money in the bank,” another CEO who declined to be named told The Post.