Guy has shown himself to grant massive favors for mild compliments and impose massive penalties for mild insults.
It’s rare that you can make a difference of millions of dollars for your company by just saying nice things for an hour, so execs are jumping at the chance.
TBH, I can’t blame them. It’s the same motivation that pushed these companies to embrace gays and trans people. They’re all paying customers. Line must go up sometimes means you advertise to and publicly embrace marginalized communities in search of larger market share. Sometimes it means you kiss the ring of the ensuing fascist ruler.
Opportunism and fear.
Like the lines from “The Big Short”:
“What’s that? What do you smell?”
“Opportunity.”
“No! Money!”
There may be a bit of fear if a business could be impacted badly by definite policy changes coming, so get in the good graces now to maybe soften the blow. But in the end that’s still about money.
Whether anyone likes it or not, Trump will be the US President for the next four years. For businesses, especially large ones, that means they will need to deal with his shit for the next four years. They can either take a “principled stand”, which will likely hurt profit and not gain them anything tangible (read: money); or, they can suck up and try to get in on the grift gravy train which is going to be running out of the White House for the next four years. This has a much better expected value. So, the choice is pretty clear. Businesses are amoral and only care about profit, don’t count on them to do anything which runs contrary to that motivation.
For politicians, especially those on the right, the calculus is about the same. Trump has basically been the flag bearer for the right for the last decade and will continue to be the center of the right for the next four years. Where is a GOP politician is going to seek electoral support? No one on the left is voting for a GOP candidate, swing voters are damned near a myth at this point in history; so, that leaves seeking votes from the right. Which brings the politicians right back to Trump. Not sucking up is political suicide for a GOP politician right now. Expect more DeSantis style embracing of Trump and more Susan Collins “I’m voting with Trump, but pretending I won’t just long enough to keep my seat in Maine”.
Trump can be bought.
So people with money are buying favours for themselves.
Money. They think he will (directly or indirectly) influence their ability to make more money.
He has the ability (along with his cohort of cabinet picks, and the supreme Court he stacked) to influence regulation policy in a detrimental way for the public that would be beneficial for the corps. Less/looser regulations = more money they don’t have to spend to comply with regulations = more profit.
