Dimon, Fraser and Moynihan will attend private Trump CEO meeting — some others will skip

Former
President

Donald
Trump
will
address
some
of
the
world’s
most
powerful

corporate
leaders
on
Thursday,
albeit
with
some
notable
absences.

In
addition
to
Trump,
President
Joe
Biden’s
chief
of
staff

Jeff
Zients
will
speak
to
the
CEOs
in
Biden’s
place
because
the
president
is
in
Italy
at
the
G7
meeting.

A
spokeswoman
for
the

Business
Roundtable
said
it
expects
“roughly”
100
of
the
over
200
chief
executives
who
belong
to
the
exclusive
forum
to
attend
its
quarterly
meeting
in
Washington
on
Thursday,
a
participation
rate
she
described
as
typical.

CNBC
reached
out
to
each
of
the
more
than
200
companies
whose
chief
executives
are
listed
online
as
members
of
the
Business
Roundtable
to
ask
whether
they
planned
to
attend
Thursday’s
meeting.

Only
17
would
confirm
whether
or
not
the
company’s
CEO
was
attending.
The
rest
—
more
than
180
companies
—
did
not
respond
to
emails
over
several
days.

So
here’s
what
we
know:
Out
of
the
17
corporate
spokespeople
who
replied
to
CNBC,
four
said
their
CEOs
planned
to
attend:


JPMorgan
Chase
CEO

Jamie
Dimon,


Citigroup
CEO

Jane
Fraser,


Bank
of
America
CEO

Brian
Moynihan
and


Edison
International
CEO

Pedro
Pizarro.

Another
13
said
their
CEOs
will
not
be
going
to
see
Trump
and
Zients
speak.

Blackstone
Group
CEO
and
Trump
ally

Steve
Schwarzman,


Goldman
Sachs
CEO

David
Solomon,


Steelcase
CEO
Sara
Armbruster,


ExxonMobil
CEO
Darren
Woods,


Delta
Air
Lines
CEO

Ed
Bastian,


Morgan
Stanley
CEO

Ted
Pick
and
the
company’s
executive
chairman

James
Gorman,
and


Duke
Energy
CEO

Lynn
Good
are
among
those
who
will
be
absent
from
the
conference,
according
to
their
company
representatives.

Some
of
these,
such
as
Armbruster,
Good
and
Solomon,
are
not
attending
due
to
scheduling
conflicts
and
travel.


BlackRock
CEO

Larry
Fink
and


Microsoft
CEO

Satya
Nadella,
for
instance,
will
reportedly
be
at
the
G7
summit
in
Italy.

Representatives
for
Woods
and
Bastian
did
not
reply
to
questions
about
why
their
chief
executives
won’t
be
attending
the
meeting.
Representatives
for
Fink
and
Nadella
did
not
return
requests
for
comment.

The
meeting’s
attendee
list
could
read
like
a
roster
of
which
CEOs
are
willing
to
head
to
Washington
to
hear Trump
—
and
which
are
not
—
just
weeks
after
his
conviction
in

New
York
on
34
felony
counts
of
falsifying
business
records.

Trump’s
comments
to
the
group
could
also
offer
a
split-screen
comparison
to

what
Biden
said
in
his
speech
to
the
CEOs
at
a
March
2022
Business
Roundtable
meeting
he
attended.

As
the
president
campaigns
for
reelection,
Biden
is
running
on
his
administration’s
record
of
aggressive
antitrust
enforcement
and
blanket
bans
on
so-called
junk
fees
that
companies
charge
for
services
that
don’t
cost
the
company
anything.

These
policies
have
drawn
the
ire
of
some
business
leaders
and
left
them
rooting
for
a
second
Trump
administration
and
the
regulatory
easing
up
it
could
bring.

Behind
closed
doors,
however,
Biden
has
made
his
own
efforts
to
court

corporate
America.
The
president
has
regularly
met
with

CEOs
and
industry
executives
to
discuss
the
U.S.
economy’s
post-pandemic
recovery
and
global
standing.

Republican
former
House
Speaker
Kevin
McCarthy,
Calif.,
said
the
willingness
of
busy
CEOs
to
schlep
to
Washington
for
face
time
with
Trump
was
a
function
of
the
tight
presidential
race.

“I
think
[CEOs]
see
what
everybody
else
sees,
that
he’s
going
to
win,”
McCarthy
said
Wednesday
on
CNBC’s
“Squawk
Box.”

For
some
of
the
CEOs
planning
to
attend
Thursday,
the
choice
to
be
there
represents
a
shift
in
their
attitude
toward
the
former
president.
Following
the
Jan.
6,
2021,
attack
on
the
Capitol
by
Trump
supporters,
several
top
executives
broke
sharply
with
Trump,
either
publicly
or
privately.

Last
year,
Dimon
told
attendees
at
The
New
York
Times’
DealBook
conference
that
they
should
“help”
Trump’s
rival,
former
U.N.
ambassador

Nikki
Haley,
win
her
primary
fight
against
Trump.

If
Haley
were
to
do
well,
Dimon
said,
voters
might
have
“a
choice
on
the
Republican
side
that
might
be
better
than
Trump.”
The
former
president

responded
by
ripping
Dimon
on
social
media,
calling
him
an “overrated
globalist.” 

But
just
two
months
later,
Dimon
had
changed
his
tune.

“Take
a
step
back,
be
honest.
[Trump]
was
kind
of
right
about
NATO,
kind
of
right
on
immigration.
He
grew
the
economy
quite
well.
Trade
tax
reform
worked.
He
was
right
about
some
of
China,”

Dimon
said
on
the
sidelines
of
the
World
Economic
Forum
in
Davos.

Trump
has
sketched
out
a
second-term
economic
agenda
that
many
economists
believe
could
reheat

inflation,
a
dreaded
prospect
for
investors
and
consumers
who
have
spent
the
past
year
eagerly
waiting
for
the
Federal
Reserve
to
respond
to
cooling
inflation
by
cutting
interest
rates.

The
former
president
has
also
proposed
extending
his
first-term
tax
cuts
past
their
2025
expiration
date
and
imposing
draconian
tariffs
on
imports
across
the
board,
especially
those
coming
from
China.

Speaking
in
Davos,
Dimon
implied
that
his
willingness
to
defend
some
of
Trump’s
policies
was
at
least
partly
in
order
to
avoid
a
scenario
where
either
he,
or
JPMorgan
Chase,
ends
up
on
the
bad
side
of
a
notoriously
vengeful
Trump.

“I
have
to
be
prepared
for
both
[Trump
and
Biden
to
win],”
he
said.
“I
will
be
prepared
for
both.
We
will
deal
with
both.”