A series of corporations have felt the lash of Donald Trump’s angry tweet, and Monday their CEOs trotted over to the White House to suck up to him. In return, they got some big promises.
His message to them and other CEOs on Monday: Keep your production within the United States, and you will be rewarded. For those looking to grow or start new factories, Trump promised to expedite their requests and provide incentives to build.
“Expedite their requests and provide incentives,” huh? That wouldn’t translate to “let them have their way and give them giant tax breaks and even taxpayer money,” would it? Yeah, I thought it might. In fact, Trump promised to cut their taxes “massively.”
Trump also promised to cut regulations, because preventing fatal diseases and amputations in the workplace and poisoned water in the community is such a burden for companies. But don’t worry, Trump’s replacement for the regulations that have done so much to clean our air and reduce workplace fatalities over the past decades will totally be just as good, while also being much, much less. And, of course, to show he’s a big dominant guy, Trump also threatened the corporate leaders with a tariff they all know he probably can’t impose.
Trump said that he hopes to convene this group at least four times a year to hear directly from the business community, saying that they are “great people” who have done “an amazing job.”
I look forward to hearing about his equivalent four times a year meetings with union leaders or rank-and-file workers to hear directly about how wages and working conditions are faring under his leadership.