The psychology of CEO loyalty to Trump

A COUPLE of weeks ago, a story emerged in Washington that was likely to make any chief executive officer shudder: According to Axios, the White House has created a secret “loyalty rating” chart ranking 553 companies and business groups on whether they display “low”, “moderate” or “strong” support for the policies enshrined in Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” Budget Bill.

Initially, Trump’s team did not comment on the story, although the White House has since confirmed that the scorecard – on which groups such as Delta, DoorDash and Uber are reportedly rated highly – does exist.

But what is perhaps most notable in all this is the lack of any visible business reaction. After all, using “loyalty rankings” as a basis for policy dealings is certainly not an American norm; on the contrary, it seems to underscore that the administration has scant respect for the concept of a universal rule of law.