Commentary: US business leaders want Harris' stability not Trump's chaos

Former President Donald Trump is the kind of salesman no successful businessperson can stand. He’ll promise the world, only to deliver “concepts of a plan.” His economic agenda is a shortsighted mash of policies that scores of top economists and business leaders predict will add up to higher inflation, less stability and lower growth.

Tariffs are Trump’s catch-all economic prescription: He promises duties of up to 20% on all imports — and 60% (sometimes even more) on Chinese goods. The upshot is obvious: Americans will pay more. Inflation, which the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration has decidedly tamed, will climb back. As other nations inevitably retaliate with tariffs on US goods, our exports will suffer. Big businesses will struggle; small businesses will go under.

Trump’s plan to deport tens of millions of workers — some of whom he seems to acknowledge would be legal immigrants — would have similar inflationary effects. Constraining the labor supply at such a critical moment in the post-COVID recovery would be foolish at best — all to suit his flat-earth misunderstanding of how commerce works in the 21st century.

Some argue that Trump’s desired corporate tax cuts would boost the economy. A key question is, do we need that stimulus? The robust Biden-Harris economy hardly does — just look at the record stock market or the low unemployment rate. On the contrary, my worry here is that such cuts rekindle inflation. And if Trump pursues tax plans like last time, which were a bonanza for — guess who — real estate investors, it could distort the broader economy more than help it. The problem with Trump is that he practices grifter capitalism.

By waging war on US companies, Trump stands in stark contrast to the free-market principles of the traditional Republican Party. He’s hounded Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, for news coverage he didn’t like. He has insisted that executives who don’t back him “ should be FIRED for incompetence! ” And he’s attacked some of America’s most innovative and iconic companies — Apple, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Harley Davidson, John Deere — for not toeing whatever capricious line he was drawing that day.

This all makes somewhat more sense — or at least feels consistent — in the context of Trump’s record in the private sector. He’s a convicted felon, obviously. A civil court found that he committed fraud on a massive scale. He’s also failed to pay his vendors for decades; I know some who have had to take him to court just to be paid what he owed them. When your modus operandi is to rip people off, you aren’t qualified to be president.

Whoever takes office next Jan. 20 will do so at a time of unprecedented technological development. The rise of artificial intelligence holds massive promise as well as serious risks for America’s economy. We deserve a president who takes these concerns seriously. Is that Donald Trump?

Organizations succeed when their executives create a culture of excellence. We need a leader who knows how to bring out the best in people, invest in their success and foster candor and mutual respect among teammates. Is that Donald Trump?

But there’s something even more fundamental at stake this election. American business and commerce rely on the rule of law. Companies can’t thrive where an erratic, vindictive autocrat influences our courts and Justice Department. And they can’t take Trump at his word if he’s shown himself to be a serial liar whose tweets can depress markets.

That is Donald Trump. And America can’t afford to return him to power. That’s why so many business leaders like myself are backing Vice President Harris, who led the Biden administration’s AI policy, has outlined sensible economic proposals and, above all, has shown she can be trusted in the nation’s highest office.

For all of these reasons, the business case is clear. The smart money is on Harris.

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Reid Hoffman is a technology investor, a co-founder of LinkedIn and part of the Business Leaders for Harris campaign.