((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto)) by Gram Slattery
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and top advisers to Democratic President Joe Biden will lay out their sharply divergent economic views in a series of conversations with top U.S. business leaders on Thursday.
Mr. Trump is scheduled to address the Business Roundtable at the group’s headquarters in Washington, DC, around 11 a.m. local time (1500 GMT), according to two sources familiar with the organization of the event. The association of more than 200 business leaders will also host Jeff Zients, Mr. Biden’s White House chief of staff, earlier in the morning, these people said.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will address the Economic Club of New York at 12:30 p.m., where she will discuss “expanding the productive capacity of the American economy,” according to a press release from the Treasury Department.
It could not immediately be determined what message Mr. Trump or Mr. Zients intended to convey to the Business Roundtable, which counts Wall Street heavyweights such as Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, among its members.
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Bank of America BAC.N Chief Executive Brian Moynihan and Citigroup CN Chief Executive Jane Fraser are among the attendees, according to three sources who requested anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
Conservative commentator Larry Kudlow, who was a key economic adviser during Trump’s 2017-2021 term, will interview the former president during the event, one of the people said.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, who are engaged in a tight race five months before the November 5 election, disagree on a number of major economic issues.
Mr. Biden has made environmental protection a central part of his economic plans. His administration has, for example, created a series of incentives for the purchase and use of electric vehicles and, in January, suspended the approval of applications to export liquefied natural gas under new projects.
Mr. Trump, while sometimes sketchy, has attacked measures intended to accelerate the U.S. economy’s transition away from fossil fuels and has repeatedly asserted that electric vehicles don’t work.
During his term, Mr. Trump reduced the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Mr. Biden has proposed raising the top tax rate for large businesses to 28%, lower than historic levels but higher than the current rate.
BUSINESS TITANS RETURN TO TRUMP
Both men have largely used tariffs to protect American industry, although Mr. Trump’s proposals – which include imposing a 10% tariff on all imports – are much more extreme than those of his rival.
President Trump’s “America First” economic agenda will deliver tax cuts, record reductions in regulation, fair trade, abundant energy, low inflation, better wages, and restored government to the middle class of law in America,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump’s campaign.
The White House declined to comment on the content of Mr. Zients’ speech. Mr Biden is in Italy for the G7 summit, where he is expected to sign a new security agreement with Ukraine.
During his stay in Washington, Mr. Trump is also expected to address Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives at locations near the Capitol. These meetings should focus on the political priorities of a possible second term for Mr. Trump.
The Business Roundtable regularly asks presidential candidates from the major parties to address the group during election years. Still, Mr. Trump’s appearance underscores that some in the business community have moved closer to the former president after many companies distanced themselves from him and his supporters following the Jan. 6 attack. 2021 at the Capitol.
In the weeks after the attack, many major companies said they would no longer donate to federal politicians who denied the legitimacy of the 2020 vote, which Mr. Biden won, although many have since appeared to discreetly backtrack on this commitment.
Business titans like Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone, previously abandoned Mr. Trump, before announcing during this election cycle that they would support him after he easily brushed aside his rivals in the race for the Republican nomination for president earlier this year.
