Trump CEO brain trust to huddle as corporate America is split

President Donald Trump has needled Mary Barra at General Motors. He’s troubled Doug McMillon at Wal-Mart Stores and gone after Boeing, once headed by Jim McNerney.

Now those business leaders, and about a dozen others, are set to sit down with Trump to talk trade, regulation and more.

Welcome to "The Apprentice: CEO Edition."

In his first two weeks as president, Trump has rewritten the Washington playbook for corporate America, as he has for U.S. allies. In the process, he has opened rifts between companies over how to approach matters ranging from taxes to immigration and revealed the first cracks in companies’ tentative embrace of him, drawing criticism from some of the chief executives who will be in the room Friday morning.

And from one who won’t — Uber Technologies Inc.’s Travis Kalanick on Thursday quit the president’s Strategic and Policy Forum after coming under fire from drivers and customers.

Trump takes first step to scale back financial regulations Tribune news services

President Donald Trump is taking his first steps aimed at scaling back financial services regulations, and the Republican-run Congress cast a vote early Friday signaling that it’s eager to help.

The president will sign an executive order Friday that will direct the Treasury secretary to review…

President Donald Trump is taking his first steps aimed at scaling back financial services regulations, and the Republican-run Congress cast a vote early Friday signaling that it’s eager to help.

The president will sign an executive order Friday that will direct the Treasury secretary to review…

(Tribune news services)

The gathering of the 18-member group, led by Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman, will give America’s first billionaire commander-in-chief a chance to reprise his "Apprentice" role on a grand scale. Business, after all, is Trump’s world. And after decades of globalization, that world is shifting rapidly as a confluence of forces, both economic and political, signal an end to an era of unbridled trade.

The format for the meeting is somewhat fluid, according to a person familiar with preparations for the session, and Kalanick’s departure upsets the plans. It’s also unclear how many members of the group will attend. Walt Disney Co.’s Bob Iger, for example, won’t be attending due to a previously scheduled board meeting.

"Meeting with biggest business leaders this morning. Good jobs are coming back to U.S., health care and tax bills are being crafted NOW!" Trump tweeted Friday.

Later in the day, Trump is scheduled to order reviews of a requirement that investment advisers work in the best interests of their clients, and the Dodd-Frank Act, a White House official said.

After brief introductions, the CEOs and Trump are expected to discuss four or five topics, with some executives presenting prepared remarks on specific issues: Barra, for example, will take the lead on auto-industry regulations. Immigration, particularly sensitive for the technology industry, was at one point to be first on the agenda — a week after Trump’s controversial action to halt immigration from seven mostly Muslim Middle Eastern countries that sparked nationwide protests and pushback from U.S. companies, including Nike and Coca-Cola.

Trump tweets that Schwarzenegger ‘tried hard’ to make ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ work Tribune news services

President Donald Trump says movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger “tried hard” to make “Celebrity Apprentice” a success, but has failed. In an early morning Twitter post Friday, the president kept alive a theme he brought up a day earlier during his first appearance at the National Prayer Breakfast….

(Tribune news services)

Kalanick and Tesla’s Elon Musk had volunteered to lead that discussion, the person said. Kalanick, who was criticized by employees and customers for engaging with Trump, told Uber staff in a memo last week that he would raise his objections directly with the president.

Will the Uber co-founder’s former colleagues in the group challenge Trump?

On the issue of immigration at least, "they are emboldened," said David Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision PR Group in Atlanta. The protests against the executive order "gives them cover."

Musk said in a tweet Thursday he plans to express his objections to Trump’s executive order on immigration and suggest changes. "I believe at this time that engaging on critical issues will on balance serve the greater good."

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, a member of the forum, sent a memo to employees Thursday about the "uneasy times," reiterating the firm’s "commitment to diversity and inclusion" and concerns about "the backlash against globalization." What he will say at the meeting is anyone’s guess.

Given the president’s penchant for surprise attacks against companies on Twitter, and his stance as a hard-bargainer in his real-estate career, the men and women walking into the room may be wary, Johnson said. "The big question is what Donald Trump do they get. People say that the Donald Trump in these private meetings is different than the public Donald Trump."

Businesses face treacherous path after ‘Delete Uber’ Leonid Bershidsky

The Uber boycott sparked by the company’s refusal to join an anti-Trump strike poses a question many U.S. businesses will have to answer: Do they openly stand with those of their customers who abhor President Donald Trump’s policies or does it make more business sense for them to stay neutral?

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… (Leonid Bershidsky)

Taxes are expected to be on the agenda after battle lines were drawn this week on a proposal, spearheaded by House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, that would reshape the corporate code. A coalition of retailers and automakers announced its opposition to the so-called "border-adjustment tax" on Wednesday. The next day, a group of big industrial companies went public with its support.

At stake is billions of dollars in potential taxes. Both sides are slated to be at the meeting: GM’s Barra and Wal-Mart’s McMillon could make the case to scrap the plan; Jack Welch, former head of General Electric Co., and former Boeing CEO McNerney support it.

The dueling arguments both may have pull with Trump. Supporters say it would boost U.S. job creation by favoring exports. Critics call it a new tax on American families — because prices for goods would increase — that might pay for companies that export a lot to reduce their taxes significantly.

Perceived support or criticism of the president could generate boycotts on either side of the country’s partisan divide, Johnson said.

"If it leaks out that they went along and didn’t say anything after taking stands publicly, their entire brand will look fake," Johnson said. "Trump supporters will attack them as all mouth and no action. People who bought into the stand they were taking automatically turn on them."

The meeting is the latest in a series of White House events designed to allow Trump to solicit feedback from business leaders — and burnish his image as a can-do businessman ready to strike deals. Since taking office, the president has welcomed corporate executives from the pharmaceutical and automobile industries to the West Wing, as well as union leaders and the heads of large American manufacturers. On Thursday, executives from Harley-Davidson rode their motorcycles up the south driveway of the White House.

While many of the events have the air of a kiss-the-ring publicity stunt, there have been some instances of corporate leaders expressing alarm. Casey Patton, co-owner of the Taylor Gourmet sandwich chain in Washington, said he attended a meeting with small-business owners days after the administration announced its new immigration policies because he wanted to share his employees’ anxiety with the president.

The events usually start with pictures and video clips to feed the news cycle and then a closed meeting with the president and top aides such as Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus. After the photo ops is when it gets interesting, of course, and it could be up to Blackstone’s Schwarzman to keep things in order, said Davia Temin, founder of the crisis-management company Temin & Co. in New York. If he’s allowed to be in charge, he should run it like a board meeting, with vigorous but respectful debate.

"One model is a high degree of professionalism and politeness, even while being tough and entrenched in your questioning," she said. But "some boards are different — some boards you have knock-down, drag-outs."

Bloomberg contributors: Hugh Son, Molly Smith, Jennifer Kaplan, Sabrina Willmer, Christopher Palmeri and David Welch.

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