Business leaders are turning on Donald Trump claiming he can still continue litigating the results of the election while cooperating with Joe Biden’s transition team.
CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Tom Donohue, a longtime confidant of Republican presidents, acknowledged today that Biden is the winner of the presidential election.
Donohue said in a statement that Trump ‘should not delay the transition a moment longer.’
‘President-elect Biden and the team around him have a wealth of executive branch experience that should allow them to hit the ground running,’ the Chamber of Commerce boss said.
Other business leaders have also acknowledged Biden’s victory, and called for the transition of power.
The Business Roundtable, which represents top CEOs, congratulated ‘President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Harris’ on November 7, the day most major media outlets began calling the election for the former vice president.
Specifically, these top executives are calling on the General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy to ascertain the election for Biden and sign the appropriate papers to allow the transition to commence.
This would include Biden finally being looped in on daily intelligence briefings, which is typical for a president-elect to receive before taking office.
National Association of Manufacturers president and CEO Jay Timmons said Murphy should sign the letter opening transition resources to Biden’s team.
‘Further, we call on the Trump administration to work cooperatively with President-elect Biden and his team,’ Timmons along with other NAM leaders demanded.
Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told the New York times that the U.S. ‘needs a peaceful transition.’
‘We had an election. We have a new president,’ Dimon said. ‘You should support that whether you like it or not because it’s based on a system of faith and trust.’
Not only have recent Republican presidents been worse for the economy, but Trump in particular has notably poor economic statistics.
Unemployment at the end of August stood at 8.4%, vs. 4.7% when he took office.
Consumer confidence has fallen from 112 under Obama to 85 now.
Stocks plunged, then rose, and have recently been falling again.
Trade with China and other nations has entered a volatile period that has increased economic uncertainty.
The fact is that the disruptive nature of the Trump presidency is unhelpful for business, especially small business. Business hates volatility.
It’s hard to make significant plans and investment without predictability.
Trump’s team has initiated lawsuits in several states, like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia, to try and launch investigations into the election process, which Trump says was full of ‘fraud’ and ‘cheating.’
Many courts have declined to take on these cases or have immediately struck the claims down.
Biden declared victory four days after the election, when projections showed him with enough Electoral College votes in enough states to go over the 270 threshold needed for victory.
He also formed his transition team, including forming his own coronavirus task force, as he prepares to take office on January 20.
Trump’s team insists there will be a ‘peaceful transition’, but only if it is shown Biden is the ‘true’ winner.