The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce suggested Tuesday that the business group is warming up to the incoming administration of President-elect Trump.
Thomas Donohue, the Chamber’s president and CEO, wrote in an op-ed published in the Financial Times that President-elect Trump’s selections of business executives for Cabinet positions is a source of optimism for businesses, and that a business attitude toward the presidency could benefit the U.S.
“Strategic deal-making leading to incremental yet steady progress is a tenet of success in business,” Donohue wrote. “It can work in our messy democracy, too, if we the people give the business approach to governing an honest chance.”
Donohue in the past has been critical of Trump’s statements on trade and immigration. He is slated to speak Wednesday at the business group’s headquarters in D.C. about its priorities for 2017, indicating how it plans to work with the Trump administration.
Trump’s appointees should be cleared by the Senate swiftly, Donohue said, to allow them to get to work immediately.
Business expectations have picked up since Trump’s election. The stock market surged and, most recently, the National Federation of Independent Business’ optimism index soared to the highest level since 2004 on Tuesday.
As for complaints that Trump’s appointments of wealthy businessmen might present conflicts of interest or generate cronyism, Donohue responded that “if we want to fix the economy we must move away from the notion that government exists primarily to police business with regulators who have little knowledge of the industries they regulate.”
