NO FORTUNE 100 CEOs BACK DONALD TRUMP
Democrat Hillary Clinton has 11 contributors and 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney had far more
No chief executive at the nation’s 100 largest companies had donated to Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign through August, a sharp reversal from 2012, when nearly a third of the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies supported GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
During this year’s presidential primaries, 19 of the nation’s top CEOs gave to other Republican candidates, including former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of campaign donations.
Since then, most have stayed on the sidelines, with 89 of the 100 top CEOs not supporting either presidential nominee, and 11 backing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. A total of 66 CEOs sat out the 2012 campaign, according to the Journal’s calculation.
Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric Co., who gave to Sen. Lindsey Graham during the GOP primary, called Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexicans and Muslims “unacceptable” in an interview with Vanity Fair last month.
Immelt, who hasn’t decided whom he is voting for, said in the interview of Mr. Trump’s rhetoric: “I can’t reconcile [it] with anything I believe in, or that I think the country stands for, or that the company stands for.”
Hope Hicks, Trump’s spokeswoman, said the candidate has “tremendous support from small and large business CEOs and business owners,” and added that he “is not beholden to supporters with agendas like CEOs of massive, publicly traded companies.”
Clinton has received donations from twice as many Fortune 100 CEOs as President Barack Obama got in 2012. She collected $2,700 checks last month from Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook, American Airlines Group Inc.’s Doug Parker and Nike Inc.’s Mark Parker.
Altogether, the 11 CEOs have donated more than $30,000 to Clinton, according to Federal Election Commission records. Two of those CEOs, including Cook, have raised more than $100,000 from other contributors for Clinton, according to her campaign.
“We’re fortunate a growing number of business leaders recognize Hillary Clinton is the right candidate for the economy,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement.
Nineteen CEOs also gave more than $100,000 to GOP presidential candidates other than Trump and their allied super PACs earlier in the cycle.
Individuals are capped at donating $5,400 to a candidate, so the financial loss for Trump’s campaign is small. But gathering such support is traditionally a goal for candidates, because it sends a signal to voters about their competence, particularly on economic issues.
In 2012, the top 100 CEOs donated a total of $142,000 to the Obama and Romney presidential campaigns. They also gave another $3.2 million to the candidates’ allied super PACs, which don’t cap contributions—much of which came from a single $3 million donation from Larry Ellison, then-CEO of Oracle Corp., to the pro-Romney super PAC.
Ellison, who is no longer the company’s CEO, hasn’t given money to a presidential candidate since Rubio quit the race earlier this year.
The Journal’s analysis focused on the top 100 companies listed in 2016 and 2012 on Fortune Magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s 500 largest businesses by revenue. The names of the CEOs for those firms were then searched in FEC campaign-finance disclosure reports for donations to campaigns, super PACs and other political committees.
Some executives who backed Republicans earlier in the election have since shifted allegiances. Roger Crandall, CEO of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, donated $10,000 to the super PAC backing Bush last year. Crandall, who donated $5,000 to Mr. Romney in 2012, gave the maximum $5,400 to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in July.
Crandall said in a statement he was confident the company would “work well” with the next president, regardless of who wins. “I have always taken a bipartisan approach to policy and policy makers, and will continue to do so,” he said.
Others have rallied behind Mrs. Clinton while continuing to back down-ballot Republicans. Apple’s Mr. Cook hosted a fundraiser for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) in June, aimed at raising money for House Republicans. Two months later, he hosted a fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton.
Representatives for the CEOs included in the Journal’s analysis declined or didn’t return requests for comment, but some have previously made public remarks on the presidential race. Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise who in 2012 donated $100,000 to a super PAC backing Romney, called Trump “reckless and uninformed” in a Facebook post last month. Calling for Republicans not to support him, she wrote, “Donald Trump’s demagoguery has undermined the fabric of our national character.”
Whitman has said she plans to donate to Clinton and has hit the campaign trail on her behalf.
Fred Malek, finance chairman of the Republican Governors Association and a leading fundraiser for past GOP nominees, said that Trump doesn’t have a history with CEOs that would naturally translate to political support.
“He’s more of an individual entrepreneur,” Malek said. “He’s not a big company guy, and they don’t know him.”
Trump has talked up his business skills on the campaign trail, calling himself the “most successful person ever to run for president” and pledging to create jobs and bolster small businesses.
But his record on immigration and trade, among other things, has drawn criticism in the campaign.
He also has publicly bashed several major companies on the campaign trail, in one instance calling for a boycott of Apple over what he called its noncooperation with a Justice Department terrorism investigation.
“Romney was indisputably respected for his business acumen and spent years developing relationships with the potential donor world,” said Charlie Spies, a top fundraiser for Romney’s campaign. “Trump not only didn’t build a network, but went out of his way to offend people for being part of the process.”
Clinton ended August with a financial advantage over Mr. Trump of more than $90 million across her campaign, joint party funds and allied super PAC, the latest financial disclosures show. Trump has fared better among small donors, with $70 million of the $88 million he raised in August coming from donations of $200 or less.
GOP strategists said CEOs are also likely shying away from Trump’s campaign out of concern for public criticism. “Trump is too controversial,” said Ed Rogers, a Republican lobbyist and consultant. “Any contribution would cause pushback from employees and customers. When you contribute, you own that candidate’s positions and persona.”
Earlier this year, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich planned an event for Trump at his Atherton, Calif., home, but canceled it after the plans were reported by the New York Times. He has said he didn’t intend the event to be a fundraiser, but rather a discussion of the tech industry’s top issues.
Krzanich hasn’t donated to Trump, FEC records show.
During a quarterly earnings conference call in June, FedEx CEO Frederick Smith, who donated to Romney in 2012 and backed Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in this year’s GOP primary, expressed dissatisfaction with both nominees, citing in particular their stances on trade.
“We would have a hard time putting up a list of the things that don’t concern us, given the two candidates’ positions,” he said.