Corporate America is growing more dissatisfied with Donald Trump

DONALD TRUMP ran as a CEO president, whose shrewd business skills would jump-start the American economy. After his victory, corporate bosses clamoured to donate to his inauguration; others joined his advisory boards. Their enthusiasm has since waned. The 50-odd business leaders recruited to advise the president quit just seven months into his term. Many of the bosses that once filled his cabinet, including Rex Tillerson of ExxonMobil and Gary Cohn of Goldman Sachs, have quit or been fired. The president’s Twitter feed is littered with insults against corporate titans who have crossed him.

Complaints about the president and his policies from America’s boardrooms are growing ever more frequent. An analysis of earnings-call transcripts by The Economist suggests that executives of publicly traded companies are discussing Mr Trump’s tariffs in about 15% of their calls, up from 5% a year ago. Mentions of the president’s trade war, which began to appear early last year, have also risen (see chart). Although some of these mentions come from bosses who are hopeful that the Trump administration’s policies will eventually yield benefits, the vast majority are critical.

Firms are particularly worried about Mr Trump’s protectionist policies. “We’re concerned about tariffs because they lead to higher prices on everyday products for American families,” said Brian Cornell, the boss of Target, a big retail chain, during the company’s latest earnings call. “We pay a lot of tariffs,” said John Olin, Harley-Davidson’s chief financial officer, in a call on April 23rd. The motorcycle-maker reckons it will pay $100m in duties in 2019. “If the tariffs go away, that’s a pretty significant reduction in headwinds,” said James Loree, the boss of Stanley Black & Decker. Tariffs cost the toolmaker $100m last year.

Executives say they are negotiating lower prices with foreign suppliers and rejigging supply chains to avoid getting hit with tariffs. But so far, according to a study published last month by the IMF, Americans are paying the bulk of the costs. The IMF found that, despite the president’s claims that China is footing the bill, the costs of Mr Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods are being borne “almost entirely” by American importers. Fresh rounds of tariff increases will be even harder for American buyers to escape.

Mr Trump is scheduled to meet Xi Jinping, China’s president, this weekend at the G20 summit in Japan, where trade negotiators from both sides are hoping to hash out a deal. Early signs are not promising. In an interview with Fox Business Network on Wednesday Mr Trump threatened to slap tariffs on another $325bn-worth of Chinese goods—covering nearly all the country’s remaining exports to the United States—if the two sides did not reach a deal. America’s most powerful business leaders are talking. Their president may not be listening.