Business Leaders: Do You Feel Lucky?
You feel lucky?
Scene from the movie “Dirty Harry” with Clint Eastwood
That is literally the question many business leaders must be asking themselves as they attempt to navigate President Trump and his many threats and executive orders.
Because evidence is piling up that attempts to appease the president’s demands don’t make them go away. In fact, sensing any weakness, he generally wants more. All appeasement does is eliminate any hope of winning.
Consider the following:
Apple, knowing building of iPhones in China is a perennial thorn in any president’s side, cozied up to Trump early. CEO Tim Cook personally donated $1 million to his inaugural committee and attended the swearing in. Weeks later, the company announced a $500 billion (with a B!) investment in the US over the next four years.
Then last week, Trump said a tariff “of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.” for every phone sold in the US not made in the US. In other words, all of them. As of this writing, Apple hasn’t formally responded as it scrambles to figure out its next move as well as his.
In Trump’s attacks on Ivy League universities, Columbia University came under fire first. A hotbed of Israel resistance over the war with Gaza, he cut $400 million in federal funding and contracts due to what the administration called antisemitism on campus. When Columbia agreed to the administration’s wide-ranging demands weeks later, it issued a four-page letter detailing the settlement.
As of this writing, Trump still hasn’t agreed to the negotiated terms. And the university’s reputation has taken a long-term hit even as Harvard University assembles broader support among colleges to fight back against attacks on it.
Paramount Global, which owns CBS News, has been in a standoff with Trump since he sued the news network for $10 billion over a “60 Minutes” interview with opponent Vice President Kamala Harris he alleges was selectively edited. (You know, like every interview the show has aired for more than 55 years!)
In February, he doubled the amount, seeking $20 billion instead. Even as Paramount fights the lawsuit in court, it has been seeking a settlement with the administration, which is holding its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media hostage.
Last week, Paramount offered $15 million to Trump to settle the dispute. Now he wants more as well as possibly an apology and public service announcements on the network for causes favored by Trump.
One more for good measure: No one person has appeared to capitulate to Trump so totally as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Not only did he pay Trump $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit, like Cook he donated to the inaugural committee and attended the swearing in. He’s even bought a house in DC so he can regularly meet with the president and other administration officials.
Despite all that, an antitrust suit brought by Trump 1.0 went to trial in April alleging the social media giant has illegally monopolized the market with its acquisitions of Instagram and What’s App. The trial ended last week and awaits a judge’s decision. The Trump Administration’s Federal Trade Commission wants both apps spun off, a big hit to the Meta business if it happens.
We could go on all day really. The big question is what can business leaders – and the communicators managing these precarious situations-- learn from these and other examples?
The overwhelming takeaway: Giving in doesn’t stop the pain. In fact, it appears to increase it exponentially. Because Donald Trump is nothing if not predictable in his unpredictability.
Business leaders view any charged decision — whether it relates to a competitor, a government, or even a disgruntled former employee — through the prism of: How do we get past this as quickly and unscathed as possible? It’s normal to believe a deal would do that. And historically, that’s been true.
Yet there is no comparison for this moment, this president or this administration. And while there is no rule book to guide these decisions, there are lessons already being taught.
Whether it’s the handful of law firms who chose to fight executive orders seeking to punish them or Harvard University, they are having success in court as federal judge after federal judge has ruled them unconstitutional. Harvard also won initial relief in Trump’s efforts to block international student enrollment.
Often people and companies decide avoiding the fight saves time and money. “Make it go away” has been the longstanding adage. Here’s the contradiction: Bullies don’t go away. They also hate an actual fight. That’s the point of all their aggressiveness.
Recall the famous climax in the “Dirty Harry” movie when maverick cop Harry Callahan asks the wounded bank robber if he’s feeling lucky. Without knowing if Callahan has any bullets left in his.44 Magnum, the robber faced a choice: Pull his own gun and risk being killed or give up.
While this isn’t a perfect analogy as I’m not likening companies to thieves, the takeaway remains: Callahan was indeed out of bullets.