Posted on 02/01/2026 1:26:38 PM PST by DoodleBob
One-third of business leaders say they’re not making a statement about Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, by immigration agents because it is “not relevant to their business,” a CNBC flash survey found.
…More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies signed a letter on Sunday urging “an immediate de-escalation of tensions,” but stopped short of demanding that ICE leave the state, while Democratic state officials, such as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have done so.
CNBC sent the survey to 550 C-suite executives on Monday and Thursday and received 34 responses. Only one of the respondents said their company had spoken publicly about Minneapolis, and more than 70% of respondents said they do business, have offices, or have remote employees in Minnesota.
Nearly 20% of respondents said they are “worried about backlash from the Trump administration,” and 9% said they are “still contemplating” speaking out. About a quarter of respondents said they were “not sure” about their reasons for not commenting on the issue.
…
A majority of leaders told CNBC commenting about ICE is not an easy call, and more than half said it’s “a lot more challenging” to speak out about political issues today than on previous occasions, like the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, or the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Only 12% of respondents said it’s as equally challenging as before, and just 3% said it was easier.
…
Some respondents told CNBC they think business should be separate from politics…“It would be a breach of management’s fiduciary duty to use our business for such tangential political purposes. We do not view our silence as an endorsement of current administration policy, action, or personality,” one executive wrote in the survey.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
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Two points here. First, the CEOs are acting in accordance with their fiduciary responsibility towards their stakeholders (owners, employees, customers).
Second, they no longer feel the threat of statist or pseudo-statist (i.e., leftist billionaires) pressure to toe the Democrat/socialist line in their public image.
Much ado about nothing.
Big Tech CEOs think ICE tensions are not relevant to their
business. I suppose that’s true. After all, how many Somalian AI doctoral theoreticians do they have on their payrolls.
Business used to be careful not to alienate potential customers.
They are re-learning that bit of wisdom.
RE: how many?
Answer: As many as the Biden era government quota for hiring them required. Has to reflect the surrounding area’s demographics.
Re Learing that bit of wisdom
Indeed. A smart CEO would not reply to any of this. A form letter stating “Corporation XYZ is here to provide our customers with the best service and products to all our customers” and leave it at that.
“Republicans buy shoes too” - Michael Jordan
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