Trump issued threats towards John Deere, continuing his pattern of attempting to intimidate an iconic American business.
Trump, more so than any recent American president, has directly confronted individual American businesses, threatening them with everything from boycotts and canceled federal contracts to prohibitively high tariffs.
Deere, the century-old farm equipment manufacturer, found itself in Trump's crosshairs recently.
The former president on Monday threatened to employ his preferred tactic - colossal tariffs - against Deere if the company chooses to shift some production from the Midwest to Mexico.
Specialists warn that such a move would harm American farmers, benefit Chinese manufacturers, and potentially breach Trump's own flagship trade agreement. On a broader level, the assault on Deere is representative of a pattern of Trump intimidating businesses when it serves his purpose.
It serves as a cautionary tale for CEOs should Trump return to the White House, highlighting the disorder and uncertainty they could face.
"Trump is proving himself to be anti-capitalistic," said Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, in a call with CNN. "It's incorrect to single out companies. These are not evil companies. They haven't produced an unsafe product or violated US law."
'Public enemy number one'
Before even reaching the White House, Trump relentlessly went after individual companies during his campaign.
In February 2016, during his presidential run, Trump advocated for a boycott against Apple until the company assisted the FBI in breaking into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters' devices (Apple ultimately did not comply, but the FBI claimed it managed to access the phone regardless).
Trump has repeatedly criticized Amazon, including a 2018 incident that rattled shareholders, where he alleged the company was defrauding the US Postal Service.
Trump attacked Boeing over the cost of Air Force One, threatened General Motors over its production plans, disparaged Nordstrom for dropping his daughter's line, and slammed Merck after its CEO, Ken Frazier, resigned from a presidential advisory committee in protest of Trump's comments regarding a White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
More recently, Meta Platforms lost billions in value after Trump labeled Facebook "enemy of the people" on CNBC. And then, of course, there are the countless attacks on individual news outlets and their corporate owners.
Late Friday, Trump threatened to prosecute Google for "only revealing and disseminating unfavorable stories about Donald J. Trump."
Trump's 'unusual' attacks
Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst and professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, acknowledged that presidents have at times targeted certain industries causing problems.
For example, Presidents Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy fought against the steel industry. And President Theodore Roosevelt took aim at companies he believed were corrupting the system.
"However, in contemporary times, a targeted approach like this is highly unusual," said Zelizer.
Trump's strategy of singling out companies can disrupt markets and create an unfavorable climate for businesses, Zelizer stated.
"It can foster dangerous incentives for politicians to make corrupt decisions for political reasons instead of economic reasons," Zelizer added, highlighting that Trump's tactics are at odds with conservative principles.
'Madness' defined
Trump sparked confusion by threatening to impose 200% tariffs on Deere if the company proceeded with plans to lay off workers in the Midwest and shift some production to Mexico by the end of 2026.
"I'm giving John Deere a heads up right now, if you go ahead with that, we'll impose a 200% tariff on everything you want to sell to the United States," Trump said during a farmers' roundtable in western Pennsylvania, claiming that Deere was harming farmers and manufacturers in the US.
However, George, now an executive fellow at Harvard University, cautioned that a 200% tariff on Deere would backfire on the very consumers that Trump claims to protect.
"It will raise prices for American farmers. Those tariffs will get passed on to the farmers," he said. "John Deere is a fantastic company. This is an American treasure. And tariffs will only weaken American companies, not strengthen them."
Christine McDaniel, a senior trade official under former President George W. Bush, told CNN that if Deere complied with Trump's tariff threat by abandoning production shift plans to Mexico, it would make the company less competitive globally.
"Ultimately, it would result in fewer sales, less revenue, less growth, and less employment for John Deere," said McDaniel, now a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center.
Billionaire Mark Cuban, who has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, recently told Fox News that Trump's 200% tariff threat on John Deere would only make it easy for Chinese companies to grab market share from Deere.
"That's the definition of insanity," Cuban said.
Breaching Trump's own trade deal
The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal criticized Trump for the Deere attack.
"Hard to believe, but Donald Trump is giving US companies a reason to think Kamala Harris might be better for their business," the Journal wrote in an opinion piece earlier this week titled, "A Deere in Trump's political cross hairs." "What Trump fails to understand is that US manufacturers compete in global markets."
Not only do they compete in global markets, they operate under a free trade agreement in North America. Trump himself campaigned on replacing NAFTA and then signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020.
Yet multiple experts told CNN that imposing a 200% tariff on Deere would be in clear violation of USMCA.
McDaniel brought up the fact that under USMCA, the U.S. has agreed to a tariff structure, which implies a zero tariff for agricultural machinery, a key product manufactured by Deere. However, it's worth noting that, theoretically, the U.S. president has the authority to label certain imports from Mexico as a national security risk and then impose tariffs under Section 232.
'Stick to your principles'
Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, expresses concern that potential tariff threats against individual companies could establish a harmful precedent.
"It would effectively be the government seizing control of the company, dictating how they utilize their capital," Lovely commented to CNN during a phone conversation. "This goes against the fundamental principles of what we consider American capitalism."
Business leaders might encounter challenging sailing if Trump wins the election in November, with all-caps tweets (or Truths?) causing stock prices to nosedive and disrupting their strategic plans.
George, a former Medtronic executive, is encouraging CEOs not to succumb to pressure.
"Stand up for what's best for your company," he said. "Don't let yourself be intimidated."
The former president's threat towards Deere could potentially disrupt its production plans, as Trump has previously targeted other businesses like Apple, Amazon, and Boeing with boycotts, criticism, and tariffs.
If Trump wins another term, companies might face challenges due to unpredictable tweets or actions, and CEOs should stand firm in their decisions to avoid being intimidated.
