Good morning.
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump this weekend prompted a number of CEOs to speak out on social media site X. There were statements from Amazon’s Andy Jassy, Marc Benioff of Salesforce, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, GM’s Mary Barra, Tim Cook of Apple, Michael Dell, Intel’s Pat Gelsinger and Sam Altman of OpenAI, among others. The common thread was relief that the former president survived and a condemnation of violence. CEO Elon Musk also responded to the tragic attack by endorsing Trump, as did Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman.
Is this a moment that calls for business leaders to make themselves heard?
Absolutely, according to Simon Freakley, CEO of consulting firm AlixPartners. “This is a dramatic reminder that we are heading for a very challenging time, whoever wins the election,” Freakley argues, “CEOs have to be a voice of reason and stability, without being partisan. Employees will look to business leaders for reassurance.”
That said, even neutral messages are being weaponized in this environment. Internet trolls had a field day responding with insults to the largely innocuous posts listed above. Several leaders I contacted didn’t want to comment, telling me it’s an internal communications issue or a national crisis that shouldn’t be used to draw attention to their companies. Fair points. Nobody would dispute that this was a tragedy and a failure of security.
The risk now is that people on each side of the political spectrum might fear the other is out to destroy them. Our presidential candidates might fan those flames instead of addressing key issues and concerns about their ability to do the job. And business leaders might do the same.
Bill Ackman, for example, has spent his career taking positions in public companies, backed up by research and reasoned arguments. He’s talked to me and other journalists over the years to explain his side of the story on a range of issues. Most recently, he’s been outspoken on issues stemming from the Israel-Hamas war. Instead of condemning violence and trying to reduce extremism after the attack on Trump, Ackman instead told his followers on X that “mainstream media” can’t be trusted, as “media organizations are like sports teams that run plays chosen by their owners and executed by the coaches they hire.”
That’s not true—here or at any of the other media organizations where I’ve worked. We don’t always get it right and should be held accountable when we get it wrong. But our job is to speak to people of all persuasions to get news and insights that our audience needs to know.
Right now, most business leaders are trying to find common ground and reinforce shared values, instead of the hyperbole and demonization that threaten to rip the country apart. There are countries where political opponents and their supporters face violence for exercising their democratic rights. This country is not supposed to be one of them.
More news below.
Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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