Short Corporate America

You probably don't realize how screwed America's corporate class is

Barring disaster on a Biblical scale, Donald J. Trump will the next President of the United States and Republicans will hold massive majorities in both houses of Congress. Republicans will dominate in the state offices, too.

For all of my life, all my parents’ lives (born 1925), and my grandparents’ lives (born 1890s), this would be great news for American corporations—or as prior generations called it “big business.” Considering that Trump is, himself, a billionaire business owner, corporations should be anticipating their greatest era since the Coolidge administration.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I watched two union bosses address the Republican National Convention to thunderous applause and comments on X and the RNC livestream voting the head of the Teamsters the best speech of the night.

The union bosses recited the same litany of union grievances I’ve heard since growing up in 63139 in the 1970s and from my union uncles and my dad’s union friends. It never changes. Never gets better. Frankly, the litany is pretty much white noise to me.

Prior to the 2016 convention, though, it’s unlikely any delegate or guest or speaker at an RNC convention ever heard the litany. The “guys in the hall” were compartmentalized away from Republican movers and shakers. The GOP establishment of my youth—including my college years when I regularly attended the Missouri Lincoln Days events—considered unions the enemy. Corporations were our friends. Inviting a union boss to speak at Republican convention would have been akin to asking Rommel give a pep talk to Patton’s 3rd Army in 1944.

Yet, here was Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters union, extolling the virtues of Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and JD Vance (R-OH) with President Trump smiling and clapping along with 5,000 Republican delegates and guests. It was stunning.

More important to the future of America’s biggest brands, this moment came at time when MAGA Republicans hate the corporations we loved just a few months ago. And for one reason: woke.