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If re-elected, Donald Trump has made it clear that he plans take revenge on people and institutions he perceives as a threat. His list of “enemies” appears to be constantly growing as the election approaches and includes Democratic politicians, media outlets, lawyers and political donors who he claims were “involved in unscrupulous behavior. »

Any CEO with any memory of Trump’s first term knows that it is wise to take these threats seriously, because the president has not been shy about speaking out and, with a single tweetsink a business action or trigger a boycott.

While dozens of American business leaders – your Hoffman Reedsyour Cuban Marks, etc. — used their money and power resist this kind of intimidation and support Vice President Kamala Harris, others choose to bend the knee. Or stay just quiet enough to avoid becoming a target.

Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, has not explicitly supported Trump. Instead, he blocked the editorial page of the newspaper to support a candidate for the first time in decades — a not-at-all-subtle nod to the Republican candidate, and one that the legendary former editor-in-chief Marty Baron called an act of cowardice. The move came shortly after billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, vetoed by its editorial board Harris endorsement.

Baron, who retired from the Post in 2021, told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday that Trump had threatened Bezos “continuously” but that Bezos had previously resisted that pressure.

“I was very grateful…for his willingness to resist pressure from Donald Trump in 2015…until today.” But the fact is, Bezos has other business interests,” including a significant stake in Amazon and a private space company, Blue Origin.

And Blue Origin, of course, competes directly with SpaceX, the rocket maker owned by staunch Trump supporter Elon Musk, for government contracts.

“Trump rewards his friends and punishes his perceived political enemies, and I think there is no other explanation for what is happening now,” Baron said.

Let’s be clear: what Bezos and Soon-Shiong have done here, under the guise of neutrality, is take a very strong position. No editorial from the Washington Post or the LA Times, with all due respect to those institutions, would ever have succeeded in significantly influencing the electorate. But pulling them creates news, and it’s news for one audience.

(And for Bezos, at least, it could also turn out to be an incredibly bad business decision. As NPR’s David Folkenflik reported As of Monday, some 200,000 people canceled their digital subscriptions to the paper – or about 8% of its subscriber base – because of the decision.)

Other rich executives engage in behind-the-scenes diplomacy, like my colleagues Steve Contorno and Alayna Treene reported:

Leaders have plenty of reasons to worry under a Trump 2.0 White House, particularly regarding trade policies that would force U.S. companies to pay exorbitant markups to the U.S. government for supplies imported from abroad. On top of that, Trump has promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, potentially creating a labor shortage, and put himself in a position to influence interest rate policy.

This is why 88 business leaders last month, he endorsed Harris.

But in such a close race, many leaders protect themselves. Sticking out their necks to voice their concerns doesn’t really benefit anyone if Trump wins and decides to do, say, everything he’s repeatedly promised to do. On the other hand, a little deflection and extension of the olive branch could give business leaders and their companies some goodwill in an administration led by a notoriously impulsive and vengeful leader.

In a business world that craves certainty and economic stability, executives may be thinking that their silence is purely a business decision. But remaining silent is a choice, and it’s not neutral when you’re a billionaire with real power.