Business Leaders Target The Trump–Musk White House For Damaging Profitability Margins

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Last Updated on: 10th March 2025, 12:54 pm

Instead of embracing the Trump–Musk administration and its supposed pro-business ideology, companies have begun to warn investors in their quarterly reports and conference calls that the effects of federal change in Washington are unsettling and likely to damage profitability margins. Red states seem particularly vulnerable, which is ironic since those red state voters gathered in a scrum and elected Republicans to Congress and the executive office. “An unprecedented recovery, a jobs boom, a renaissance in domestic manufacturing, and historic gains for Black workers,” notes Jennifer Rubin in The Contrarian, “may soon be a distant memory.”

Now the Republican policies that seemed so appealing to cut government spending are actually cutting the programs that largely benefited their constituents. Paul Waldman elaborates in The Cross Section that “Trump is coming for his own supporters, in striking and brutal ways — breaking his promises to them, robbing them of benefits they earned and deserved, and bringing misery to the places where they live.”

The New York Times Editorial Board argues that “DOGE is not building a better government. Instead, its haphazard demolition campaign is undermining the basic work of government and the safety and welfare of the American people.” While giving Musk credit for anticipating “where the world was headed, helping to create not just new products but new industries,” they also decry his disregard for the law and how he “has shown little understanding of the differences between business and government.”

The rudderless Democratic Party may now have something on which to grab: private polling suggests Musk could prove a serious liability for the Trumpsters. Nobel Award–winning economist Paul Krugman states:

“It was predictable that the co-presidency of Donald Trump and Elon Musk would eventually face a backlash. After all, Trump’s entire campaign was built on fantasy promises — like lowering grocery prices on day one of the Administration — that he had no way and no plans to honor. Moreover, the Administration’s actual policy agenda manages to be both deeply unpopular and economically destructive.”

Algorithms are designed to show viewers more of the things they already like. Barry Bennett, a Republican strategist who worked on Trump’s first presidential campaign, describes Elon Musk as the “volume button” for the Trump administration by being able to leverage the social media site X. Instead of the thousands of people who were within marketing reach just a decade ago, now X and other social media spaces can reach millions and millions of people. “There are a lot of people who are in the right of center movement who are very reliant on the medium to distribute their content,” Bennett explains.

Former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz acknowledged at SXSW this weekend that Trump “floods the zone to the point where you don’t get to make your point.” Throughout his career as a businessman and a politician, Trump’s notorious deal-making was rife with incongruities. Tony Schwartz, ghostwriter of Trump’s book The Art of the Deal, has concluded that the president’s duality is intentionally inaccurate. Rather, “it’s domination.”

The MAGA movement is contingent on personality connections and is largely dependent on Trump’s latest whim, making it full of inherent contradictions that drive businesses crazy. “President Donald Trump and Elon Musk haven’t just been taking a chainsaw through federal departments in Washington, DC,” watchdog group Accountable.US said in a statement. “Their crusade against regular Americans, and the services they depend on, has found its latest target: public servants directly serving in communities across the country.”

Take Elon Musk (please).

One reason for the economic downturn and business angst over the Trump–Musk debacle is the fear of deportation, which has gripped US undocumented workers — many are refusing to leave their homes. The impact is being felt quickly in industries that rely on immigrants as a source of willing and inexpensive labor, including residential construction, agriculture, senior care, and hospitality. US consumers will soon feel the pain, according to a report in the New York Times. An estimated 20% of the US labor force is foreign born, and millions of immigrant workers lack legal immigration status.

Then there’s the prosperity that the Inflation Reduction Act has been bringing to red state populations. That may be fleeting under Trump–Musk, as is becoming apparent in Georgia, where fears of funding reductions weigh heavily on a hunger-solution factory. “Nobody voted for Elon Musk,” protesters chanted at a Tesla dealership in Manhattan this weekend in one of the many protests at the dealerships associated with the all-electric vehicles that Musk helped bring to the mass market. “Oligarchs out, democracy in.”

A signature element of Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” fossil agenda is his day one executive order has been to frame the country in a state of “energy emergency.” The order promises to accelerate federal approvals for energy projects across the country — yet doesn’t include much in the way of renewables. Court suits that challenge the order have been numerous, but that hasn’t stopped the administration. Attacks on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) threaten to undermine critical weather and climate data that companies use to make essential business decisions.

According to Climate Power’s latest clean energy boom report, in less than two and a half years since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, more than 400,000 new clean energy jobs and over $422 billion in investments across 48 states and Puerto Rico have been announced. Most of the clean energy projects and jobs are located in congressional districts represented by Republicans — 405 clean energy projects and 216,322 jobs, respectively. Of the top 10 states for new clean energy jobs, half have Republican governors welcoming the local investments.

Climate Power executive director Lori Lodes issued the following statement:

“If you support American manufacturing and made-in-America energy, you have to support America’s clean energy investments. A majority of the more than 400,000 new clean energy jobs are in Republican districts, with a large number in rural areas and communities that have been left behind. Congress must protect the jobs and investments creating opportunity and hope for countless families. Pulling the rug out from under American companies, innovators, and working people would be, as one president put it, ‘American carnage.’”

Justin Worland explains in TIME that, in the private sector, many companies are continuing their decarbonization initiatives. Additionally, Bill McKibben reveals that the US appears to have its first entrant in the balcony solar craze sweeping Europe. If you’re in California, a company called Brightsaver stands ready to sell and install plug-and-play solar systems with no upfront costs.

Forbes has opined that the Trump administration should pass on “scrubbing established law. Moreover, the globe’s most prominent companies have net-zero goals by 2050: 45% of the Fortune 500 now, compared to 8% in 2020, according to Climate Impact Partners. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are among the most proactive.”