Despite geopolitical tensions, CEOs globally and in the U.S. believe that overall President Donald Trump has made a positive impact on the business community, according to PwC’s Global Chairman Robert Moritz and PwC’s U.S. Chairman Tim Ryan.
“We’ve talked to [hundreds of] CEOs, and when they talk about our president, they talk about some really good things that happened,” Ryan told Yahoo Finance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Tax reform was viewed really well by the business community. It was desperately needed to put the U.S. on equal footing with the rest of the globe, put money back in the United States to fund investment.”
Ryan noted that CEOs don’t agree with Trump across the board, however. “[CEOs] like certainty. We look at trade, there are some issues that need to be be dealt with, and so they support the issues, but maybe different ways of getting [them] done,” Ryan explained.
In addition, business leaders have expressed concern over the way Trump is dealing with immigration. “Clearly immigration is a big thing as well; all the CEOs we’ve worked with are for thoughtful immigration, but they also want to make sure that we don’t lose access to tremendous talent in the workforce,” Ryan said.
As far as Trump’s impression on CEOs in other countries, Moritz shared an anecdote: “Actually CEOs outside of the U.S. see some positives. He’s putting hard issues on the table,” Mortiz explained. “A CEO from another country said, ‘President Trump has done more for my organization, than my own leaders in my own country, putting the hard issues on the table.’”
For more of Yahoo Finance’s complete coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, click here.
Heidi Chung is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @heidi_chung.
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