The Daily Beast

Trump Couldn't Stop Gibbering in Front of Nation's Biggest CEOs

Rachel Olding
Fri, June 14, 2024 at 3:52 PM EDT

Former President Donald Trump left some of the country's most powerful CEOs scratching their heads, cringing, or just outright laughing during a private meeting in the nation's capital on Thursday.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe on Friday, CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin said he'd spoken to several CEOs who were at the gathering, including many who considered themselves pro-Trump. Among the attendees were Apple's Tim Cook and JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon.

"They walked away from that meeting, I think, a bit disheartened, a bit questioning - I don't want to say his mental fitness - but questioning just how meandering, how, in some cases, one said to me he could not keep a thought straight," Sorkin said. "He would go in one direction and then he'd go in another direction and... there wasn't really necessarily a through line."

At one point, Trump discussed his plan to bring the corporate tax rate down from 21 percent to 20 percent.

"When asked why he chose 20, he said it's a round number," Sorkin said, which prompted Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski to let out a long, loud sigh.

"I think that had a number of CEOs shaking their head given that 1 percent of the total tax burden on the country is actually a huge number in terms of what is needed to support the revenue for this country."

CNBC previously reported that CEOs also laughed when Trump relayed a story about a recent proposal of his to eliminate taxes on worker tips, describing how excited tipped workers were with the plan.

Trump's proclivity for gibberish has come under increased scrutiny recently, particularly after he went on a completely nonsensical rant about sharks and electrocution at a recent campaign rally.

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