Executive Time: Since Charlottesville, Trump Meets with More Than 100 Corporate Executives
By Rick Claypool
Corporate executives strongly condemned President Trump’s refusal to unequivocally denounce the white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last year. They resigned from the president’s advisory councils in droves and issued strong statements against racism.
But since that tragic day when a white nationalist drove a car into protestors opposing the rally and activist Heather Heyer was killed and 19 others were injured, President Trump has had at least 114 meetings with 106 corporate executives representing 90 different businesses.
A previous Public Citizen tally found Trump had met with more than 300 corporate executives before Charlottesville.
Corporate executives started leaving Trump’s councils after the president infamously blamed “both sides” for the violence.
Knowing a PR nightmare when they see one, the corporate executives that comprised Trump’s business advisory councils — the Strategy and Policy Forum and the Manufacturing Council — publicly distanced themselves from the president. The CEOs of Merck, Under Armour, Intel, 3M, Blackrock and Campbell’s Soup were the first to resign from the councils.
Trump disbanded the councils with a post on Twitter.
After the councils were disbanded, the council member CEOs of Boeing, Blackstone, Dow Chemical, EY, General Motors, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, and United Technologies Corporation also released statements.
Among the executives who were not on the councils who issued statements condemning Trump’s refusal to unequivocally condemn neo-Nazi violence were CEOs of Aetna, Airbnb, Apple, Nike and Peebles.
CEOs who strongly criticized President Trump after Charlottesville yet subsequently met with the president include Johnson & Johnson’s Alex Gorsky, Apple’s Tim Cook and JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon.
With Public Citizen’s previous report, this brings the tally of Trump corporate executive meetings up to 500 meetings with 396 executives representing 351 corporations.
According to a National Bureau of Economic Research analysis of the Obama administration’s White House visitor logs, Obama had exactly 100 corporate executive meetings during the first seen years of his presidency. The analysis found that corporate executives’ meetings with the White House correlate with increased stock returns, government contracts and deregulatory favors.
A sortable table of the executives with whom Trump met since Charlottesville is below. A spreadsheet that includes the full list of 500 meetings with citations is here. In the absence of official White House visitor logs, which the Trump administration refuses to release, the corporate executive meetings have been documented using the official White House press release page, Politico’s unofficial White House visitor logs and other publicly available news sources.
Following Politico’s methodology, Public Citizen’s counts each instance of President Trump and a corporate executive being physically in the same place — including meetings at the White House, interactions at Mar-a-Lago, and public events — as a meeting. Public Citizen’s tally does not include phone calls.
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
| EXECUTIVE | TITLE | CORPORATION | MEETING DATE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Kennedy | Chairman/CEO | Raytheon | 8/14/2017 |
| Jerry Cook | President | Loren Cook Company | 8/30/2017 |
| Steve Burney | COO | Loren Cook Company | 8/30/2017 |
| Jonnie Moore | Founder | The KAIROS Company | 9/1/2017 |
| Harold Hamm | Chairman | Continental Resources | 9/6/2017 |
| Ron Burkle | Co-owner | Pittsburgh Penguins | 9/10/2017 |
| David Farr | Chairman/CEO | Emerson Electric | 9/29/2017 |
| Jay Monahan | Commissioner | PGA Tour | 10/1/2017 |
| Logan Hartle | President | Warwood Tool | 10/6/2017 |
| Michael Carl | CEO | Warwood Tool | 10/6/2017 |
| Phillip Carl | EVP | Warwood Tool | 10/6/2017 |
| Mario Lemieux | Co-owner | Pittsburgh Penguins | 10/10/2017 |
| Catherine Monson | CEO | FASTSIGNS | 10/12/2017 |
| Dave Ratner | Owner | Dave's Soda and Pet City | 10/12/2017 |
| David Barr | Founder/Chair | PMTD Restaurants | 10/12/2017 |
| Gordon Logan | Founder/CEO | Sports Clips Haircuts | 10/12/2017 |
| Harold Sumerford | CEO | J&M Tank Lines | 10/12/2017 |
| Leslie Baudry | COO | Baudry Therapy Center | 10/12/2017 |
| Randy Noel | President | Reve, Inc | 10/12/2017 |
| Reem Aloul | Owner | BrightStar Care | 10/12/2017 |
| Rich Baudry | Owner | Baudry Therapy Center | 10/12/2017 |
| Shelly Sun | CEO | BrightStar Care | 10/12/2017 |
| Goh Choon Phong | CEO | Singapore Airlines | 10/23/2017 |
| Kevin Mcallister | CEO | Boeing | 10/23/2017 |
| Hock E. Tan | CEO | Broadcom Limited | 11/2/2017 |
| Brett Gerry | President (Japan) | Boeing | 11/6/2017 |
| Mitch Snyder | President/CEO | Bell Hilicopter, Textron Inc | 11/7/2017 |
| Donald Chen | President (Asia-Pacific) | Archer Daniels Midland | 11/8/2017 |
| Jack Fusco | President/CEO | Cheniere Energy | 11/9/2017 |
| John Rice | President/CEO (Global Growth Organization) | GE | 11/9/2017 |
| Keith Meyer | President | Alaska Gasline Development Corporation | 11/9/2017 |
| Kevin McAllister | President/CEO | Boeing | 11/9/2017 |
| Lloyd Blankfein | CEO | Goldman Sachs | 11/9/2017 |
| Peter Fleet | President (Asia-Pacific) | Ford Motor Company | 11/9/2017 |
| Seifollah Ghasemi | Chairman | Air Products | 11/9/2017 |
| Steve Mollenkopf | CEO | Qualcomm | 11/9/2017 |
| Bob Kraft | Owner | New England Patriots | 12/21/2017 |
| Bill McDermott | CEO | SAP | 1/25/2018 |
| Carols Brito | CEO | Anheuser-Busch InBev | 1/25/2018 |
| Eldar Saetre | CEO | Statoil | 1/25/2018 |
| Heinrich Hiesinger | CEO | Thyssenkrupp | 1/25/2018 |
| Joe Kaeser | CEO | Siemens | 1/25/2018 |
| Kasper Rorsted | CEO | Adidas | 1/25/2018 |
| Mark Schneider | CEO | Nestle | 1/25/2018 |
| Mark Tucker | Chairman | HSBC | 1/25/2018 |
| Martin Lundstedt | CEO | Volvo | 1/25/2018 |
| Patrick Pouyanne | CEO | Total | 1/25/2018 |
| Punit Renjen | CEO | Deloitte | 1/25/2018 |
| Rajeev Suri | CEO | Nokia | 1/25/2018 |
| Ulrich Spissenofer | CEO | ABB Group | 1/25/2018 |
| Vas Narashimhan | CEO | Novartis | 1/25/2018 |
| Werner Baumann | CEO | Bayer | 1/25/2018 |
| Jamie Dimon | Chairman/CEO | JPMorgan Chase | 2/22/2018 |
| Mark Costa | CEO | Eastman Chemical Company | 2/22/2018 |
| Tom Linebarger | Chairman/CEO | Cummins | 2/22/2018 |
| Adam DeVone | Founder | Benefits Exchange Alliance | 3/7/2018 |
| Jim Crane | CEO | Crane Capital Group | 3/12/2018 |
| Dennis Muilenburg | President/Chairman | Boeing | 3/14/2018 |
| Greg Smith | CFO | Boeing | 3/14/2018 |
| Leanne Caret | EVP | Boeing | 3/14/2018 |
| Marillyn Hewson | President/CEO | Lockheed Martin | 3/22/2018 |
| Peter Thiel | Co-founder | Paypal | 4/3/2018 |
| Safra Catz | CEO | Oracle | 4/3/2018 |
| Tim Cook | CEO | Apple | 4/28/2018 |
| Bernhard Kuhnt | CEO (North America) | BMW | 5/11/2018 |
| Bob Carter | EVP of Sales (North America) | Toyota | 5/11/2018 |
| Brian Smith | COO (America) | Hyundai | 5/11/2018 |
| Dietmar Exler | President/CEO (USA) | Mercedes-Benz | 5/11/2018 |
| Hinrich Woebcken | CEO (North America) | Volkswagen | 5/11/2018 |
| Jim Hackett | President/CEO | Ford Motor Company | 5/11/2018 |
| Mary Barra | Chairman/CEO | General Motors | 5/11/2018 |
| Richard Schostek | EVP (North America) | Honda | 5/11/2018 |
| Scott Becker | Senior Vice President (North America) | Nissan | 5/11/2018 |
| Sergio Marchionne | CEO | Fiat Chrysler | 5/11/2018 |
| Brian France | Chairman/CEO | NASCAR | 5/21/2018 |
| Bob Smith | CEO | Blue Origin | 6/18/2018 |
| Dennis Muilenburg | President/Chairman | Boeing | 6/18/2018 |
| Gwynne Shotwell | President/COO | SpaceX | 6/18/2018 |
| Marillyn Hewson | President/CEO | Lockheed Martin | 6/18/2018 |
| Tory Bruno | President/CEO | United Launch Alliance | 6/18/2018 |
| Wes Bush | CEO | Northrop Grumman | 6/18/2018 |
| Terry Gou | Chairman | Foxconn | 6/28/2018 |
| Ian Read | CEO | Pfizer | 7/10/2018 |
| Ben van Beurden | CEO | Shell | 7/13/2018 |
| Brent Oberman | co-founder/chairman | Lastminute.com/Founders Factory | 7/13/2018 |
| Helena Morrissey | Head of personal investing | Legal and General | 7/13/2018 |
| Jes Staley | CEO | Barclays | 7/13/2018 |
| Nigel Wilson | CEO | Legal and General | 7/13/2018 |
| Richard Gnodde | European CEO | Goldman Sachs | 7/13/2018 |
| Sir Jim Ratcliffe | Founder | Ineos | 7/13/2018 |
| Steve Hatch | UK Managing Director | 7/13/2018 | |
| Steve Varley | Chairman | Ernst & Young | 7/13/2018 |
| Warren East | CEO | Rolls Royce | 7/13/2018 |
| Craig Menear | CEO | Home Depot | 7/19/2018 |
| Fred Smith | Founder/Chairman/President/CEO | FedEx | 7/19/2018 |
| Kathy Warden | President | Northrop Grumman | 7/19/2018 |
| Marillyn Hewson | President/CEO | Lockheed Martin | 7/19/2018 |
| Tom Kennedy | Chairman/CEO | Raytheon | 7/19/2018 |
| Ajaypal Banga | President/CEO | Mastercard | 8/8/2018 |
| Alex Gorsky | Chairman/CEO | Johnson & Johnson | 8/8/2018 |
| Christopher Ruddy | CEO | Newsmax Media | 8/8/2018 |
| Darius Adamczyk | Chairman/CEO | Honeywell | 8/8/2018 |
| Dennis Muilenburg | President/Chairman | Boeing | 8/8/2018 |
| Fred Smith | Founder/Chairman/President/CEO | FedEx | 8/8/2018 |
| Gabriel Leydon | CEO | Satori | 8/8/2018 |
| Harold Hamm | Chairman | Continental Resources | 8/8/2018 |
| Indra Nooyi | Chairman/CEO | PepsiCo | 8/8/2018 |
| Jim Koch | Co-founder/Chairman | Sam Adams | 8/8/2018 |
| John Catsimatidis | Owner/President/Chairman | Gristedes Foods/Red Apple Group | 8/8/2018 |
| Keith Krach | Chairman | DocuSign | 8/8/2018 |
| Mark Sutton | Chairman/CEO | International Paper | 8/8/2018 |
| Mark Weinberger | Chairman/CEO | Ernst & Young | 8/8/2018 |
| Mike Manley | CEO | Fiat Chrysler | 8/8/2018 |
| Richard LeFrak | Chairman/CEO | LeFrak | 8/8/2018 |