Name: These Are the Risks That Come With Supporting Donald Trump
Uploaded: 2016-05-05
Duration: 4 min 27 s
Description: Fortune’s Aaron Task and Brian O’Keefe explain.

So moment of truth this week. We all sort of knew it was coming but never the less the shock sort of still resignated and we know there's so much consternation now about where establishment Republicans are gonna land. But Brian what about big business will they come behind Trump? I think there's a lot of nervous CEOs right now trying to figure this out. I mean I think in the Republican Party a lot of people are trying to figure out do I align myself with Trump? Do I not align myself with Trump? We're going to see some people running for re- election that might skip the convention. And I think the same thing is true in business. You know like They're not sure, should they support the convention. He's said a lot of inflammatory things that make it hard to cozy up to Trump. Aaron, what's the risk in supporting him actually? For a CEO, a big business donor or a company that wants to put his money Well, I mean there are a lot of, certainly, minorities in this country and a lot women in this country just don't like Donald Trump because of some of the language he's used during the campaign. And so you're at risk of offending those potential customers of yours if you're seen as supporting Donald Trump. But I think it was very interesting at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting last weekend, Warren Buffett, who is an avowed and self described Hillary Clinton supporter, Took pains to not criticize Donald Trump. He basically said, it doesn't matter who wins the Presidency, we're going to be fine at Berkshire Hathaway, and America's going to be fine. But that was very telling, because, Warren Buffett again, he's a Democrat. He says he's voting for Hilary, but he didn't trash Trump. And I think a lot of CEOs look to Warren Buffet for guidance on a lot of things. And they'll probably take their cues from him. They're under a lot of pressure though. There's this Color of Change campaign, which has already pressured Coca- Cola and sort of threatened them with protests outside their headquarters, if they support the Republican Convention. And, they've targeted other companies too and said that they're not going to back down. Then there was Cliff Asness of AQR who this week said, he was asked at the Milton Conference whether he'll support Clinton or Trump and he basically said hashtag never any of them. So he's just like I'm out. [ LAUGH ] Well I mean, Barry Diller this morning was on CNBC, said Trump is evil so I'm guessing that [ UNKNOWN ], they're not going to be supporting Donald Trump. We also Jeff Gundlach at the Iverson Conferencing, basically Trump is gonna be like Ronald Reagan, it's gonna be great for America, get ready for a Trump presidency, so I think now that he's the nominee, I think you'll see more people saying, okay I'm onboard especially if there are hard. Hardcore Republican, they're not gonna support Hillary. Mark Cuban said he'd be his VP. [ LAUGH ] There we go. On Twitter, probably. Ryan, is there a risk to not supporting him? This may sound crazy, but is there a risk to a company or, again, a big business owner, to sitting out? You risk the ability to have leverage, etc. I don't know. I don't know if there is a real risk in not supporting him. I think there might be a little bit of a risk in attacking him. I mean, he is a guy who is known to hold grudges. He is still mad about the small fingers comment from 1988. That was dredged up by Marco Rubio. So, you know, I think sort of towing a neutral line maybe is not risky. But going out against Trump. Could have some consequences. We have a comment from Facebook here. Business will support him if they can realize the profit with him. The biggest problem is how much competition will he try to crush now that he's in a position to do it. Aaron. Well, it's an interesting point. I mean think about it. If you're a CEO you're probably one of the wealthiest people in this country. So Donald Trump's going to be very good for you in terms of your taxes. But also, if he's going to go through with his plans to basically end global trade, that's not good for you if you're the CEO of a multinational company. So, you gotta look at it both ways .>> Right. Although he has said he wants to raise taxes on the rich .>> His tax plans would really be beneficial for the rich, as I understand them .>> Yeah, as I understand them, they would really help the rich but He said he wants to slash the corporate tax rate, which sounds good. But he's also said he wants to bring down the national deficit. He said he wants to do a lot of things. And definitely he's put out this protectionist line, and he sort of has to follow through on it, because he's talked about it so much. Right, and that's very anti- business. That is, big business does not like that, so. Yeah, [ UNKNOWN ] the other thing I think about business Business likes a predictable environment. Right. Mm- hm. And Trump is an unpredictable character I think. So, I mean, I think that there's some things that sound good for business, and there are other things that would really scare them. I do think- Right. [ UNKNOWN ] Sorry, Hillary Clinton is the candidate of big business, right? Of the two of them, I think that she's gonna get a lot of support from big business. And I think that we are losing the notion of That Republicans are always going to be the party of big business. I think things are really changing a lot. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Fortune’s Aaron Task and Brian O’Keefe explain.