WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris“The campaign actively warns business leaders that Donald Trump behaves with contempt for democracy and the rule of law which threatens American economic growth — a final argument intended to show the possible consequences for businesses and workers if he returns to the White House.
It is a position which Trump’s team rejects because they are telling voters that prices will be lower and growth stronger than ever if he wins Tuesday’s election. As a billionaire who made his name in real estate, the former president advocated for higher tariffs to bring more factories to the United States and tax cuts for the rich and wealthy. companies, on the assumption that this would lead to more investment.
The rival positions result in a fundamental distinction between the two candidates on how to guide the world’s largest economy: Harris’ team argues that the rule of law creates the certainty that can make markets and workers thrive, while that Trump argues that tariff increases and tax cuts are the key to growth.
Gene Sperling, who guided three Democratic presidents on economic policy and now advises the Harris Campaignhas presented what he describes as a “common sense” argument to financiers and others about the dangers of a second Trump administration.
“A president who targets people, CEOs, businesses, journalists and the opposition could have a devastating impact on investor confidence, which has been strong over the past four years, but is also part of the strength of America since its founding,” Sperling said.
But billionaire hedge fund investor John Paulson, a Trump supporter who sees himself as a possible Treasury secretary, pushes back against the Harris campaign’s criticism by saying the world was more stable under Trump and that inflation was weaker.
“It’s completely false,” he said of Sperling’s argument that the rule of law is in danger. “When people make these claims, they are completely misleading. They are not anchored in reality. Trump is a brilliant businessman. He wants to reduce unnecessary spending and encourage growth.”
Trump ridiculed his opponent’s handling of the economy as “stupid” and claimed the stock market would collapse if he lost the election, although the S&P 500 stock index rose by about 50 % under the presidency. Joe Biden the term.
“We will give our businesses the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs, the lowest regulatory burdens and free access to the best and biggest market on the planet,” Trump said at a rally Tuesday in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “The problem is if we had more of these idiots running our country, you won’t have a bigger and better market because we are a nation in decline.”
The Harris team’s effort is to connect the Uprising of January 6, 2021 at the United States Capitol with the story of Trump using the pulpit to attack the Federal Reserve as well as companies such as Amazon, Merck, Comcast, John Deere and Toyota. Their argument is that companies are less likely to make long-term investments if democratic values are attacked and election results denied.
In addition to Sperling, business leaders heard from Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary; Kenneth Chenault, former CEO of American Express; and Brian Deese, Biden’s former National Economic Council director.
A person familiar with the conversations said Harris campaign representatives were not required to press the issue. Seemingly apolitical CEOs are raising this issue privately as their primary concern about a Trump presidency, with the person insisting on anonymity to describe private conversations with business leaders who want to stay out of the election spotlight.
But Vanessa Williamson, a senior governance fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the Harris campaign had somewhat underestimated the risks given the possible dangers.
“By and large, Americans have been successful in taking the basic rule of law for granted,” Williamson said. “The type of cronyism and fraud endemic in some other countries is truly unimaginable here – and that’s a good thing, of course. But it is also difficult for people to understand how important the state is to the functioning of markets.”
The two campaigns are vying for support from the business community. Trump has the support of a billionaire Elon Muskowner of Tesla, SpaceX and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Billionaires like the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates and billionaire entrepreneur Marc Cuban support Harris.
Many disputes concern political differences. Trump said the higher corporate tax rates favored by Harris would discourage investment, while Harris’ team attacked his plans to remove Biden-era incentives for building computer chips, vehicles power plants and other advanced factories because it would cost factory jobs across the country.
But the argument about the importance of democratic values gained credibility in October after the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to three economists, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson, who demonstrated that social institutions and the rule of law are essential to economic growth.
Acemoglu was among 23 Nobel Prize-winning economists who signed a letter saying Trump’s economic plans would “lead to higher prices, larger deficits and greater inequality.”
The letter said: “Among the most important determinants of economic success are the rule of law and economic and political certainty, and Trump threatens all of these. »
The subject has long fascinated Harris, former California attorney general. Two people working at the White House recalled that in 2022, Harris asked for economic research to support her own understanding that the erosion of democratic norms would hurt growth. These people insisted on anonymity to discuss the request.
Likewise, Biden was the candidate, Jeff Zients, White House chief of staff argued to CEOs at the Business Roundtable that a Trump return to the presidency would generate uncertainty that would hamper growth. It was a speech that contrasted with Trump proposing additional tax cuts to the group.
Neither the Business Roundtable nor the American Chamber of Commerce provided support in the November presidential election. The Business Roundtable has made keeping the corporate tax rate at its current rate of 21 percent its top legislative priority. Trump has promised further cuts to the corporate tax rate for U.S. manufacturers, while Harris would like to raise it to 28%, an increase although still lower than the 35% rate in effect until 2017.
The Chamber, for its part, underlined its desire to defend the interests of its corporate members with the administration in power.
Business Roundtable CEO Josh Bolten said in a statement this month that the organization supports the peaceful transfer of power. Trump has so far refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, after falsely claiming that his 2020 defeat was the result of a rigged election, a claim that helped encourage the insurrection in 2021.
“Finalizing election results may take time, and we urge all Americans to follow the processes outlined in federal and state laws for election determinations and an orderly transition,” Bolten said.
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