Scaramucci suggests CEOs backing former president have 'Trump-nesia'
Former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci suggested that some CEOs have “Trump-nesia” two days after former President Trump attended the quarterly meeting of Business Roundtable, with over 80 CEOs present including Apple’s Tim Cook and Blackstone’s Steven Schwarzman.
“It’s a little bit of Trump-nesia,” Scaramucci told Alex Witt during an interview on MSNBC. “These guys denounced him several times…for some reason, they’re decided that now for these little policy promises that he is offering they’re going to switch over to him.”
“He is the chaos candidate,” Scaramucci added. “I would just remind these people that they were not happy when he was president.”
During the event, Trump floated a cut to the corporate tax rate. During his presidency, Trump’s signature tax plans, and one of his few legislative achievements, cut corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 21 percent.
However, Scaramucci said that he believes a Trump presidency would be dangerous for the country because he would drive up inflation.
“The mix of inflation and the general malaise that a Trump presidency would cause is dangerous,” he said.
According to Scaramucci, Trump has a plan to deport 15 million people and drive up tariffs to 20 percent.
President Biden was also invited to the event, but instead attended the G7 summit in Europe and sent White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients in his place. According to reporting from CNBC, Trump “meandered” during the meeting.
“He’s better in those rallies where he can talk about electric boats and sharks,” he added. “He’s way better at that than he would be at actually articulating economic policy in front of a bunch of Fortune 500 companies,” Scaramucci said.
In recent days, the Wall Street Journal and Politico have published stories about CEOs hedging their bets and beginning to back Trump over Biden.
However, Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute President Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who holds annual CEO business roundtables attended by many of the Business Roundtable attendees, told The Hill that he does not believe that CEOs are backing Trump.
“Not a single Fortune 100 CEO has donated a single penny to him, which is a break from major CEO support for GOP presidential candidates dating back over a century, going back to Taft and stretching through Coolidge, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and the Bushes - all of whom regularly had 50% or more of major CEOs,” Sonnenfeld told The Hill. “CEOs are not isolationists, protectionists, or xenophobic.
“Other than two or three prominent CEOs, none support Trump vocally or financially. That is a first in American history,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.