Companies that spent two years currying favor with President Donald Trump now face an uncomfortable new reality, an economic analyst argued.
In a Thursday piece for The Bulwark, economic analyst Catherine Rampell wrote that corporations that collaborated with Trump are “shaking in their boots” now that Democrats appear poised to retake at least one chamber of Congress, along with the subpoena power that comes with it.
Rampell pointed to recent reporting from The Washington Post that Democrats are already assembling lists of companies, universities and other Trump collaborators to investigate, including defense technology firms and manufacturers that supply the military. She also cited The Wall Street Journal’s reporting that major tech companies have started publicly highlighting their resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, while Apple has brought on more lobbyists with Democratic ties.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, warned oil companies this week that helping import Russian diesel would break the law despite Trump’s deal with the Kremlin, Rampell noted.
The economist contended that the scramble was entirely predictable. Former Biden domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, who sits on Netflix’s board, predicted on a podcast back in February that corporations bowing to Trump would be held accountable once Democrats regained power, a warning Rampell said has aged well. Netflix itself later lost out on a lucrative Warner Bros. merger to the Ellison family’s Paramount Skydance, which Rampell characterized as the better Trump flatterer.
She also highlighted JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who explained last year that his bank steered clear of Trump’s ballroom fundraising partly out of concern that a future Justice Department might view such payments as buying favors.
Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who covered Russia’s oligarchs as a journalist, previously told Rampell that firms celebrating a rigged system when it hurts their rivals have nothing protecting them when the favoritism turns against them.
Rampell observed that billionaire Elon Musk has already lived that lesson, falling out of Trump’s good graces before working his way back.
Still, she cautioned that Democrats can’t stop at punishment. To truly rebuild the rule of law and avoid accusations of political retribution, Rampell maintained, the party must also defend companies that refused to cave, even if that means standing up for big banks and tech firms.
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