WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump failed to impress a room full of top CEOs at the Business Roundtable’s quarterly meeting on Thursday, multiple attendees told CNBC.
“Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” one CEO who was there said, according to a person who heard the executive speak. The CEO also said Trump had not explained how he planned to accomplish any of the policy proposals, this person said.
CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin reported on “Squawk Box” on Friday that several CEOs “said (Trump) was very meandering, unable to think clearly, and Disorganized.”
Topics on which Trump offered few details included how he would cut taxes and loosen business regulations, according to two other people in the room who spoke to CNBC.
Meeting participants and those they spoke to were granted anonymity to speak freely about private events.
Sorkin reported that CEOs alarmed by Trump’s lack of focus “went into meetings with Trump supporters or thought they might be leaning in that direction.”
“I think these people may actually be more inclined toward (Trump, but) actually walk out of the room less inclined” toward him, Sorkin said.
“President Trump received a warm welcome from everyone in the room and was praised for his policy proposals on deregulation and tax cuts,” said Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump presidential campaign.
Trump’s energy during the meeting also waned significantly, according to two people present. Two attendees told CNBC there was no apparent applause during Trump’s speech.
This was in sharp contrast to Trump’s meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill earlier in the day. Attendees of that meeting told CNBC that the former president was animated and engaged, and Trump received rounds of applause during separate meetings with House and Senate Republicans on Thursday.
Zhang said Trump was applauded during the question-and-answer portion of the meeting, and “participants praised President Trump’s deregulation and tax-cut agenda.”
One attendee told CNBC that Trump’s low-key performance at the business roundtable may have been intentional. The person said Trump wanted the CEO meeting to be “more of a business meeting than a speech.”
“At one point, he discussed plans to lower the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 20 percent … and was asked why he chose 20 percent,” Sorkin said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “He said, ‘Well, it’s a round number.'”
“That in itself makes a lot of CEOs shake their heads,” Sorkin reported.
2023 corporate income tax Contributed approximately US$420 billion Federal revenues, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Wall Street has been outraged over the past three years by President Joe Biden’s aggressive antitrust enforcement, drug price caps and progressive tax policies.
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