We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode CEOs on Trump with Jeff Sonnenfeld 3/14/25

CEOs on Trump with Jeff Sonnenfeld 3/14/25

2025/3/14
logo of podcast Squawk Pod

Squawk Pod

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
J
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
L
Leslie Picker
Topics
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: 我与来自不同行业的100位CEO进行了交流,其中60%是共和党人,30%是民主党人,10%是无党派人士。他们普遍感到沮丧,并且对总统的政策可能导致的市场波动感到担忧。他们对关税政策的反复无常感到担忧,这使得他们难以做出重大的投资决策。最初,他们的乐观情绪并非来自关税政策,而是来自放松管制、低企业税率和减少政府支出等因素。然而,这些因素现在都被弄乱了,导致了不确定性。企业界已经吸取了教训,他们现在正在通过集体行动,而不是公开对抗的方式来与政府沟通,以影响政府的决策。 他们已经学会了如何通过战略性的、小规模的集体行动与特朗普沟通,从而影响他的决策。他们认识到,直接对抗这种强势的个性是行不通的,而通过集体行动可以更好地与他沟通并达成共识。 他们正在以一种不张扬的方式回应政府政策,避免公开对抗。 Leslie Picker: 高盛CEO戴维·所罗门认为,当前的政策环境复杂,客户在政策明朗之前会谨慎行事。他指出,美国政策方向不明朗,特别是关税问题,可能会影响企业情绪和盈利。尽管存在不确定性,但他同时也注意到,由于监管环境的变化预期,CEO的情绪已经发生了重大转变,并购活动有所增加。

Deep Dive

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

Hello, I'm Ben Rizzuto, Wealth Strategist at Janus Henderson Investors. Is a brighter future possible? At Janus Henderson, we think it is. We've worked to help clients achieve superior financial outcomes and fulfill our purpose of investing in a brighter future together. We never forget that this means our thinking and our investments are helping to shape millions of futures. At Janus Henderson, we're committed to helping you invest in a brighter future. To learn more, go to JanusHenderson.com.

What if your biggest risk was not taking one?

What if you could make every move matter? Bank of America's business solutions can help bring your biggest what-ifs within reach. Find out how our digital tools, cutting-edge insights, and trusted expertise can work for your business. What would you like the power to do? Visit bankofamerica.com slash banking for business to learn more. Bank of America is proud to be the official bank sponsor of FIFA World Cup 2026. Bring in show music, please.

Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Here's what's coming up today on Squawk Pod.

What do America's corporate leaders think of the first weeks of Trump 2.0? The Yale management professor called a CEO whisperer, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, says the corner office is concerned. "We had 100 CEOs across sectors, 60% Republican group, about 30% Democrat, 10% Independent, and they were overwhelmingly discouraged." And may not have the stomach for more market volatility off the president's policies.

a 10% loss already. CEOs are doing it, but they aren't doing it with grandiosity and trying to throw stones at the emperor that missed.

And tariff talk. Who should be allowed to tariff us if we can't? The levees threatened on products from around the globe and from the wine cellar to the toy box. Do you think it's LOL or LOL? LOL. LOL. All that today and more. It's Friday, March 14th, 2025. Squawk Pod begins right now. Stand back, you buy in three, two, one. Cue, please.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We're live from the Nasdaq market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick, along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Not only is it Friday, guys, it's Pi Day. It is Pi Day. That's right. 3.1415926535.

- Oh, you practiced. - Seven, nine, seven. - Oh, you switched it. - You practiced. - No, we're learning it last night for Kyle. Three, two, three. - Yeah. - They have a race today, so we'll see how far they can carry it out. - Other than being able to do that, do you get any advantage from knowing all those decimal places? - No.

None whatsoever? No. I tried to carry it up to 30 and I can't. Get yourself a cactus. Pie day for me just sounds like... No, pizza. But, I mean, as an excuse for that maybe. But it is kind of...

It is. It's a cool day. And total nerds and geeks, really. It's like almost guilty. Yeah. Yeah. Here we are. It's between my anniversary and my son's birthday. So it's the 13, 14, 15. Yes. Anniversary, Pi Day, Scotty's birthday. Exactly. And the equity futures are looking up. Maybe not as a result of that, but maybe.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer indicating he's now going to vote to advance a six-month bill to fund the government that was passed by GOP lawmakers in the House. That happened earlier this week. It means the bill will likely eventually pass in the Senate today or possibly tonight. A key Senate test vote now set to begin. That's going to happen after 2 p.m. Eastern. And we will need, I say we, it will need, I shouldn't say we. I didn't mean it like that.

It's going to need at least eight Democrats to support it. Schumer speaking on the Senate floor yesterday. Here's what he said. Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have full authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel non-essential, furloughing staff with no promise of

they would ever be rehired. And if this afternoon's Senate test vote passes, then lawmakers would then have to agree on timing for when a final vote will be held. It's possible the government could shut down before that final vote is taken.

We as a country are going to need those. That's what I meant. We as a group. I wasn't thinking about the politicians. Well, we as Republicans are going to need eight more votes. We as Democrats are going to need eight more votes as Democrats. So we are we. And you know what? I think we forget that. I think we forget that way. Why are you laughing? I think we forget that way too much, don't we?

It's an interesting about-face for Schumer, but you probably looked through him. I think he... His body language. Yeah, there's not going to be a whole lot they get out of this. The caucus was split. At least half of his caucus did not want him to shut the government down. But even when he was acting like he was... He always seemed like he was... It's a bad scenario. It is, but he seemed like he knew. I'll tell you that people are saying, and I hear it on Twitter, that if you control all three branches of government,

and the government shuts down, you could still blame, you know, the Republicans. But I don't think that was going to happen this time because of the House's recess. They passed the Republican. And so I also think what Schumer pointed out is accurate for the Democrats to say that they want to slow Doge and want to make sure this has been done in a little different way. That was not going to get them to their ultimate goal on that. Right.

Oh, boy. Federal, you know what don't you love when people say don't talk with businesses, just talk about stocks. We're so wrapped up in everything in Washington, right? Not one thing happens that we talk about that isn't somehow, it seems like, tied to. It feels like it's been that way for about 15 years. I know, but the last, has it been two months yet? The last January 20th? No, it hasn't. Incredible. A few more days.

In the meantime, the premier of Canada's province of Ontario calling a meeting on tariffs yesterday with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick productive and saying that the two men will speak again next week.

Earlier this week, Ontario leader Doug Ford suspended an electricity surcharge that Ontario had levied against three U.S. states. And President Trump pulling back on threats to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, although a 25 percent U.S. tariff did go into effect on Wednesday. I'll be glad to get to April 2nd. I will because... See what happens? Yeah, I think a lot of this is total BS.

well here's the thing i don't think right now honestly i think if cooler heads prevail

If you're in compliance with USMCA, that should all be off the table. - Right. - All right? - I agree. - The fentanyl thing, all right, I get it. You used it for a while. Let's get to the point where you stop saying that. If you're going to arbitrarily put-- - Look at you. - No, if you're gonna put arbitrary, I've always said, you know, I've said that all along. But if you're gonna arbitrarily put tariffs on a lot of stuff that are car makers,

use from Canada and if you can see just connect the dots it's gonna cost our guys

Our automakers, billions of dollars to comply with this for no good. What's the reason? So the billions of dollars they would have spent on retrofitting or or just take your pick. New factories, whatever they do with money. If it's two or three billion dollars less because of this, it makes it makes no sense. And you know who we do pay it.

Not all of it. U.S. consumers. Not all of it. And I think... You're coming around. I'm not coming around. You're coming around. Not coming around. I just think that if you... I see why Sonnenfeld's coming on. He'll be hyperbolic. I know. But if Joe Kernan, the CEO of Joe Kernan, Inc.,

Behind the scenes, I'm saying these things, just like these other CEOs are saying. Yesterday, Scott... Cooler heads might prevail. Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary, and Howard Leitnick, the Commerce Secretary, both said yesterday in interviews that they would like to see... Their plan is to eventually not have these tariffs come on. I think if you talk to Peter Navarro, he'll tell you something very different. Peter Navarro has always told us that this is going to be a long-term way of raising revenue. Now, those two competing camps are both in this administration, and you wonder which one comes out. Can I say there's one camp

There's only one camp, an audience of one. And that audience of one, you can go back 30 years ago

He's been talking about tariffs, raising tariffs, raising money. He believes this way. How about reciprocity? This is not a, to me. But he didn't follow through with it in his first administration. Sure, but I think that this is a lifetime goal for him. But he followed through with some that were kept on by the Biden administration. It's a lifetime goal. So the idea that he's going to be swayed by either Besson or Lutnick, I'm not sure.

I'm not so sure. Maybe swayed by the market's reaction. Maybe swayed by what he hears from auto. I think he's just, he has a lifetime goal of levying tariffs on people. No, I think he's slapping. I think he wants to, he thinks it'll bring back. He has a theory of the case. What I'm saying is a theory, people who have theories of the case for decades typically want to at least try to experiment with the theory. Don't you think reciprocal tariffs might make sense in certain cases?

In certain cases, but I would say in limited cases. Some of the tariffs that we've heard from Canada... Who should be allowed to tariff us if we can't... But some of them have been red herrings, too. I mean, if you listen to what they've traded... Right, but the ones that are... But the idea that, okay, we're going to charge 200 and something percent, that Canada is going to charge that on our dairy, it's only if we reach levels that are more than twice of what we're bringing in now. So they've never been hit. That's the USMC. Yeah. They've never been hit, so...

You know, these theoretical tariffs that aren't actually playing out because we don't hit the thresholds on them. But you could handle that if you want to renegotiate the USMCA, then that takes all this off the table. Become a 51st state takes all that off the table.

By the way, my new view for you is to say go for it. You go get Canada to be your 51st state. I don't want it. Because it will... It would immediately supplant Vermont as the most liberal state. I don't want it. But it would undo the politics of this entire country. It would. You, I think, would be so...

You're right. You're right. So I find the whole thing just like they tried to do with the open border with the undocumented Democrats. It would make us permanently. It would make us permanently. Have you talked to have you talked to the folks? They're not returning my calls. What have I what have I done? I've done nothing. Have I? I.

U.S. real estate giant Compass is in advance talks to buy Berkshire Hathaway's brokerage business. That's according to a report in The Wall Street Journal that says a deal could be finalized soon, barring any last-minute hurdles. That deal would be a rarity for Berkshire and CEO Warren Buffett, who rarely sells companies to others. The journal cites statistics showing Compass was the largest U.S. brokerage by volume in 2023, while Berkshire's Home Services of America came in at the fourth largest.

I believe that unit's been basically break-even for a while, but there was a big court case last year that Berkshire Hathaway was added to the list of defendants, and this was that court case in Kansas City, Missouri, where they accused the National Association of Realtors and a lot of these brokerages of artificially inflating prices for the fees that home sellers pay, the agent fees that are usually between 5% and 6%. There was a big...

ruling that came out, it was something like one and three quarters billion dollars or something. Berkshire has the deepest pockets of any of those brokerages that were brought up because they've got so much cash on hand more than any other company. In fact, I read a statistic last week that Berkshire Hathaway now has more money than the value of all the companies in the FTSE 100 just in terms of the cash that they have on hand. So that might be part of the reasoning, too.

Because he thinks that he's a target of this? Well, he doesn't think it. They were added as a list of defendants. No, I know. But is the idea that somehow they would be, I mean, they're a bigger target because they're the biggest one. Right. They've got more money than any of the other brokerages. And so if you get rid of it, the idea is that Compass is going to...

have to deal with this problem and that they have a lot of them settled. I believe Berkshire Hathaway did not settle in that suit because Berkshire Hathaway never settles lawsuits that they think are brought frivolously. But it's interesting. We'll see what happens with it. Toymaker MGA Entertainment, which makes Bratz and LOL Surprise Dolls. You think it's LOL or L-O-L?

LOL. It is LOL surprise. But LOL dolls would rhyme. LOL dolls. You've heard of it? Yeah. You've heard of LOL dolls? Yeah. You? They're very popular with little girls. I've heard of Bratz. I don't know. Accelerating its shift out of China, the company is. It's a major supplier of toys at Walmart and Target.

It now says it's taking steps to move 40% of its manufacturing to India, Vietnam, and Indonesia within six months or so after the shift.

Roughly 60% of the company's manufacturing will still be in China. The CEO warned that he may have to raise wholesale prices on the goods made in China to protect the company's already thin profit margins. President Trump has imposed a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports in early February on top of existing duties and doubled that to 20% early

earlier this month. Does that help? It's not coming here. Well, I was going to say, the move is to try and get manufacturing back here. But it's also to punish China. And then you throw fentanyl into the discussion about China. You're saying this is good or bad? I'm saying that you don't need fentanyl. You can throw it in there, but we've got a lot of other issues with China to try to maybe...

punish them for doing things. But the cost of these dials is still going to go up. Right. And the manufacturer's not coming here. We're just moving... It's not coming... Right. But is that a good... Is that something that... Unless... Steve Mnuchin yesterday in another interview theorized that if you were just to put a 10% tariff on everything from everywhere...

that that would be something that really would shore up the budget here, that would bring in money and it would keep them from going to other countries instead of coming here for manufacturing. - That's interesting, yeah. Tees will be next.

Coming up on Squawk Pod, the corner office and the oval office. This week saw multiple gatherings of CEOs and the top issue, their relationship with the White House. Yale's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who hosted one of those CEO summits, joins us next.

I've known Trump for almost 30 years. He's a very smart guy. He doesn't want to be put in a corner. He gets defensive like a wounded animal and slashes at you if you embarrass him. And they've learned how to try to engage him through small groups of collective action. That's the sound of a tree in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains releasing volatile organic compounds, which is just a fancy way of saying it's creating fog.

And that makes the Smokies smoky. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. At Comcast, our commitment to the military community goes back to our founder, U.S. Navy veteran Ralph Roberts.

Today, we honor his legacy by partnering with organizations to help veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses succeed in today's digital world. Delivering the internet connection, skills, and support they need to advance economic mobility and open doors to new opportunities. Visit ComcastCorporation.com slash military to learn more. Comcast, proudly supporting our military community because your service matters.

This is SquawkPod.

Up in Andrew, Q. You're watching Squawk Box right here on CNBC. I'm Andrew Ross, working along with Joe Kernan and Becky Quick. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon out with his annual letter. Leslie Picker joins us right now. She's got more on that letter. Good morning, Leslie. Hey, Becky. Good morning. Yeah, he's calling

the current environment, quote, complex and saying that clients are acting cautiously until they have more clarity on policy. He said, quote, global growth has been hampered by inflation and escalation in potential tariffs and the toll of geographical tensions and prolonged conflicts

across multiple regions. Solomon described the direction of various policy items in the U.S. to be, quote, unclear, noting the, quote, discussion around tariffs in particular may weigh on corporate sentiment and the impact on the bottom lines could be significant. He said, quote,

Many CEOs I engage with are evaluating the potential impact on their top and bottom lines. And as a result, we are seeing some of our corporate clients act more cautiously until they have more clarity. However, he says that there has also been a meaningful shift in CEO sentiment given the expected change in the regulatory environment. He writes, quote, the appetite for dealmaking has increased significantly.

and that could spur further capital markets activity in 2025. Shares of Goldman down more than 8% this year, in part on concerns that this recent bout of uncertainty that he describes could hamper the potential revival in deals and low-making. So he sees some positives there on the regulatory front as it pertains to the capital markets, but also the uncertainty, which is impacting some clients in the near term. Leslie, I want to thank you for that. I want to bring in another voice about the relationship between Goldman

confidence, the White House, corporate America, all of it. Joining us right now is Yale School of Management Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies, Jeff Sonnenfeld, also a CNBC contributor. Jeff, it's nice to see you, sir. Good to see you, Andrew. So let's just talk about it. There seems to be a disconnect between the idea of confidence. I mean, maybe there's no disconnect. I think right now there's not a lot of confidence. Is that fair to say?

I think that is fair to say. I think that report you just had on David Solomon is fascinating because he's shifted down a bit just from what he was saying a day ago, where he was a little bit more effervescent. He's still talking about deal activity, but we don't see it. And we're at a 12-year low in M&A activity. I have David Solomon in class in two weeks, and we'll see how he's feeling at that point. But he's acknowledging the uncertainty. And that's what we're seeing with the CEO community today.

is not just the report you had this morning on the plunge in retail sentiment of the plunge in consumer sentiment uh... and ceo confidence indices by other indices as a chief executive magazine but we had up uh... a hundred c_e_o_'s across sectors sixty percent republican group bob

about 30% Democrat, 10% Independent, and they were overwhelmingly discouraged. There was a lot of goodwill that had been accumulated after the election, even though most large CEOs didn't support him, President Trump. They did rally, and we encouraged that patriotically to go down to Mar-a-Lago, talk about company-specific issues,

Same thing happened in 2017. That goodwill dissipates quickly, and it's happening right now. 85% think these tariff moves are a disaster, even though they're in favor of tariffs. They want selective tariffs. So here's the question, though. If they were to come out, I mean, the Trump administration would come out with tariffs. We know what the deal is one way or the other on April 2nd. I don't know if you believe that that's even plausible, but that's what they say is going to happen.

will that create the certainty with which business can then know what the deal is going forward and therefore maybe be able to make investments in other things or do you see the tariffs as a negotiating tool that can come on come come off will always be sort of up for grabs in which case obviously the uncertainty persists as you guys said just this morning at the start of the show i think you nailed it by saying that howard letnick statements about these tariffs having a transitory effect

uh as the secretary of commerce howard lutnik as opposed to peter navarro who i actually introduced to donald trump for the first time is that peter navarro you're responsible for the relationship yeah i kept giving his books to donald trump that he didn't read but jared kushner saw them there and then they that that's uh unfortunately the path we took i've known peter for years but peter is saying these are a permanent way of life and a revenue source

uh... you know it during our session was really fascinating it was uh... is as a man was giving us updates a man uh... even javis from c_n_b_c_ uh... who every he has twelve updates to the course of the day and people gas these times as they were head-spinning reversals so whether or not as automotive to uh... to advertising or consulting to computers as people say well how do we keep up with this too to make massive moves and an automotive and manufacturing

of tens of billions of dollars of capital. We can't even have consistency within 10 minutes. These were head spinning reversals and that was quite stunning. So CEOs are worried about that uncertainty more than anything else. And that's, you know, we have a,

roughly uh... half of them said we're ready now the tipping point to talk about a disastrous economic situation mostly analysts you have on here in the last week would tell you that the they have expectations about the recession of and shot up to almost the size thirty to forty percent of any which when you've had on these people to our amazement required higher they're saying ninety ninety two ninety four percent were saying we're headed right now this path toward all this jeff is the is is tariff related in most c_e_o_'s a few

ask why they were optimistic. Initially, it wasn't because of tariffs. It's because of deregulation. It's because of keeping corporate tax rates at 21% and other tax cuts. And it's because of DOGE and cutting down government spending. Now, it's all been muddled, and we had Scott Besson on last week, and we said the seat-of-the-pants nature of the way this tariff works

story is playing out might be bad for confidence. There's no put that the Trump call on the upside is if we have good policies, then the markets will go up. But in general,

The other three things I mentioned versus what Kamala Harris proposed to do, I still take issue with your blanket statement that the people you talked to invariably didn't support Trump. Because those three things, deregulation, keeping corporate taxes low, and DOGE, are

are all very positive. Maybe this, you know, we had Brad on yesterday, Altimeter Capital, Gerstner. Brad Gerstner, yeah. He says, look, you know, whether the market needed to come down, whether 20% is the max that it comes down. I mean, we are...

It's a 150% tariff in India. There are certain tariffs that need to be addressed and reciprocal tariffs. But once we get beyond this, you're left with less regulation, less government spending, bond yields coming down, which is good.

And what was the last answer? And lower taxes for corporations. This is positive. I wouldn't minimize. I'll take Trump any day over what we would have had with Kamala Harris. Do you wish Kamala Harris was president? We wouldn't have this volatility. Do you realize we have just lost in the market, Joe, about 12% on the S&P. 10% on the S&P. 10%. 50% on NASDAQ. Happens almost every year. We're in NASDAQ right now, so it's NASDAQ. Say 12%. Do you realize...

happens every year with the most amount of money no no it's happening in 97 every other year it's happened six or seven times and there are catastrophic reasons with catastrophic consequences i heard when 10 on the s.m. is not catastrophic scott best said no it's do you know what that 10 percent is

Of that 10% that was just lost, you could fund the NIH for 90 years. You could fund the Ukraine war for 90 years. You know, that's a lot of money. So you're looking at, you know, at $40 billion a year is funding that. Jeff, you don't want to argue that 10% is some kind of historic success.

So don't even go there by translating it into billions of dollars. The crash in 1929, on October 29th, you know how much that was? That was 10%. In 1987, it was 22.6% in one day. That was...

And it took, and it also took four years for that to ever recover that price, too. Jeff, you don't want to be on the side saying 10% is catastrophic. Just to finish this point, Joe, it is consequences for that, is that's an awful lot of money. You know how much that is for the average 401k holder? That's over $20,000 just lost for every family's 401k. That might be inconsequential to you, but that $40,000 per family was a lot that was just squandered.

And it didn't need to happen. But on deregulation, yes, if you have your financiers on here, Jamie Dimon would be supportive of it. Guess who's not getting deregulation? The guest you had on yesterday. In M&A, why is M&A down by a 12-year low? It's because they're afraid of the, right now, there's nothing. Brad Gerson said yesterday, when Trump came in, all the investment bankers were called back from the beach to start working on deals.

Every company has pulled their M&A teams off the beach. They haven't done anything for three years and they're all back to work. Do you think deals get done in two months? It hasn't even been two months yet. Yeah, there's no deal activity right now and the reason is this FTC commissioner, the chairman, who is a very experienced guy, a very smart guy, can't disavow a single thing that Lena Kahn stood for.

President Trump appointed me to protect Americans in the marketplace, and that includes from big tech. And I've said since day one, big tech is one of our main priorities, and that remains true.

You name it, whether it's Google, Amazon, he's in favor of it. Ladies' handbags on tapestry, he thought those were the priorities. If you were to ask him, as Eamon did yesterday on your show, Eamon asked him, how about PBMs, which is 40% of the drug cost? He said to you on the show, I don't care about that. We asked him about refineries, where they've had 300% price increases. You want to know where the price gouging was? That's where it was. He didn't care about that.

He cared about big tech companies, the same thing as Lena Kahn. He didn't care about baked bread. There are three companies control over 70% of our baked bread, and they have huge price increases there. He didn't care about that. He cares to focus on where Lena Kahn went, and there's zero daylight between him and Lena Kahn.

So yeah, I don't see a difference there. And if you look at Deregulation Joe, I don't see where it is. You know, most of the automotive companies and the extractive energy companies, the oil companies, they want to keep the same methane abatement and pollution control that was there. And they fought the last Trump administration to maintain the Clean Air Act.

he did a job and we've had some strategist who've come on the show and said that in the last trump administration it was all of the good things for business that came first lower taxes deregulation those things it was the tariff talks that came later in the administration and that's when the market really did start to wobble and drop pretty significantly on some of those things we've had them

say that this time we're going to take the bad medicine up front and maybe get to some of the better things for business later in the term. If that happens, do you think these Wall Street CEOs or these CEOs in general will change their mind about things? The sequencing, you're exactly right. While...

Going back to a century, the GOP candidate was supported by over half of major business leaders consistently until 2016, it went to zero. And then 2020, it went to two. And until Elon Musk joined this summer, it was zero again of the major business leaders.

However, they did get a lot of support, say in 2017, January 2017, even though they didn't support Trump in the campaign, they rallied around patriotically and it's a good thing they did. And he had that support 'cause it was business issues he addressed early on, Becky. You're right, as they formed these business advisory councils, it all dissipated by August in that case.

they all quit is the first time in american history we've had the u_s_ business community refused the commander in chief's call to action they left and they never came back till now as an august twenty seven seventeen post charlottesville and that was because he started more and more into these social issues the tariff tantrums right now are a significant issue we're attacking our allies in some cases it makes sense obviously they would have one thousand percent surgeon and and steel coming in through china

They're not making that steal. That's coming in from not just China, probably also from Russia, as we've charted some of it, and I think even some of it from Ukraine. But it's coming in from Canada, and Trump is right to have selective tariffs on that. Obviously, there are automotive parts and other things coming through Canada. CEOs support that, but they should have been selective. This whipsawing and talking about 200% and all this and that, we had the premier of Ontario with us

uh... and uh... the with c_e_o_'s in automotive those were shocked and horrified we also had uh... sixty mayors a major cities with us and mayors from from michigan and minnesota were horrified to hear premier ford of ontario talk about retaliating by cutting off electricity is why are we going down this path with allies so that they're booing the national anthem in canada so that these these trade uh... the tensions have uh... have

Come on, very early on, Becky, you're right, and that wasn't what we saw. Many people keep saying Trump 2.0 is going to be better than Trump 1.0 because of the lessons of experience. It depends, you know, how good a learner you are. We don't have the same group with the same guardrails, but we don't have the same experienced hands. The ideologues around him are more sycophantic, and

What's interesting is how the CEOs are reaching Trump. They have learned. They've learned that it has to be through collective action for the most part. They see the kind of Zelensky scene we saw before where Zelensky, not to vilify the victim, but he's a thin-skinned person himself and his short temper wouldn't work for a CEO either.

so that kind of uh... blow up we saw the oval office no c_e_o_ once but we we saw not of the business roundtable meeting where they're sitting in rows and columns like in a church basement silent uh... listening to the president ron speak at our event just at the hours before we had the same people an active free-for-all but president ron wasn't in the room

But the day before that, the tech council met with him, select a small group of people just between us, Michael Dell separately, Arvind Krishna from IBM. They had fantastic one-on-one or very small group discussions.

I've known Trump for almost 30 years. He's a very smart guy. He doesn't want to be put in a corner. He gets defensive like a wounded animal and slashes at you if you embarrass him. And they've learned how to try to engage him through small groups of collective action. He doesn't like NAFTA. He doesn't like NATO. He doesn't like the Business Roundtable. He doesn't like collective action. And that's how you take down a forceful personality like him.

But they will listen to reason if they talk to him strategically. And that's what we see. The lessons of Trump 2.0 are how the business community seems to have learned it. You know, I'm hearing from Joe's friends on the left, surrounding me all the time, "Why aren't your CEO friends speaking out?" They are. They're speaking out differently and better. I want to know where these CEOs who are not the billion-dollar oligarchs, they're hired hands working for shareholders,

Where's this stakeholder democracy we used to hear about? The 1960s, the social change we saw, there was a triumph of clergy, interfaith clergy linking arms together and trade union leaders and campus voices. They're all silent. They want the CEOs to do all the heavy lifting for them. Well, the CEOs are doing it, but they aren't doing it with grandiosity and trying to throw stones at the emperor that miss. Okay. Jeff, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. We'll be right back.

Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now. It pays to discover. Learn more at discover.com slash credit card based on the February 2024 Nelson Report.

Hey, can I get your number?

Trade in your old phone for a brand new iPhone 16 Pro, iPad, and Apple Watch. Visit Verizon.com today. Additional terms apply. Service plan required for Apple Watch and iPad.

That's the pod for today and for the week. Thank goodness it's Friday. It's been a long one. Squawk Box is hosted by Joe Kernan, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Tune in weekday mornings on CNBC at 6 Eastern. Get the best of our TV show right into your ears. Listen anytime you want when you follow Squawk Pod wherever you get your podcasts. We'll meet you right back here on Monday. Have a great weekend. We are clear. Thanks, guys.

Cats have always acted like their don't stink. Now with Fresh Step Heavy Duty's new 30-day odor control, it actually doesn't. Fresh Step's new heavy-duty litter fights odor three times longer than the leading brand. This is Fresh Step's strongest litter ever, giving your litter box 30 days of odor control. Step it up to Fresh Step with the new heavy-duty litter. Three times claim based on fecal malodor versus the leading regular clumping litter. Strongest litter ever is based on odor control. Febreze is used under license from the Procter & Gamble Company or its affiliates.