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Persuasive Business Leaders Parade Through White House - The New York Times

posted onApril 30, 2017
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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — In a meeting at the White House with business leaders two weeks into his presidency, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase. Aren’t the Chinese manipulating their currency? Mr. Trump asked, according to two people who were there. “No, Mr. President, they’re not,” Mr. Dimon replied. “I think they’re trying to be responsible.” Others at the meeting, including the former Boeing chief W. James McNerney, agreed. Their advice echoed arguments by members of Mr. Trump’s staff and cabinet that he should abandon his campaign pledge to punish China over its currency. Mr. Trump was listening. Two months later, facing a strengthened United States dollar and the need for Chinese support against a pugilistic North Korea, he reversed his position. The meeting with Mr. Dimon and other corporate executives was just one of dozens of sessions Mr. Trump has convened with top businesspeople since becoming president. Nearly 300 executives have visited the White House this year, according to a New York Times tabulation, an open-door policy that is a sharp break with the Obama administration and puts corporate chieftains on par with senior lawmakers in the pecking order of who has influence in Washington. Frank and occasionally confrontational, the conversations have become a defining feature of Mr. Trump’s young presidency, inspiring policy debates and in some instances 180-degree shifts by the president, according to White House officials and executives who hav... Link to the full article to read more

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