CNN
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Trump allies want the federal government to punish Deloitte after an employee of the consulting firm allegedly shared private messages with JD Vance.
The attacks on Deloitte are just the latest example of former President Donald Trump or companies in his orbit targeting large American companies.
Deloitte began feeling the fury of the Trump world soon after the Washington Post published an explosive story on Sept. 27 that revealed Vance said in a private message in 2020 that Trump had “absolutely failed” to deliver on his economic agenda. The Post did not disclose who had corresponded with Vance, now Trump’s vice president, and disclosed the communications.
Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son and campaign surrogate, quickly reacted on social media the same day, revealing the identity and image of the Deloitte employee and offering his employer to pay the price.
“Maybe it’s time for Republicans to end Deloitte’s taxpayer-funded fishing train?” Trump Jr. wrote on X that Deloitte receives billions of dollars in government contracts. His post was reposted by Vance’s spokesperson and amplified by Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller.
Trump Jr. told CNN that he spoke as a private citizen.
Deloitte received about $3 billion from the US federal government in fiscal year 2024, according to federal data. This includes nine-figure sums from large organizations such as the Department of Defense, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Two days later, Trump Jr. followed up in another tweet, asking if Deloitte had yet commented on the employee who “conspired” with the Post to “help Kamala Harris.”
“We will not forget this,” Trump Jr. said in a post shared by Republican Sen. Eric Schmidt.
Neither Trump nor Vance have publicly threatened Deloitte, and it’s worth noting that Trump Jr. has said he has no plans to serve in the federal government. Representatives for Vance and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Still, the attacks on Deloitte fit a broader pattern of American businesses being targeted by Trump and his allies, underscoring the danger that the former president could weaponize the federal government if he returns to the White House in January. slow
This is cruel. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder and president of the Yale Institute for Senior Executive Leadership, told CNN in a phone interview that it shows how unfit Trump is as a candidate and how irresponsible he and his family would be if he were to return to power.
Trump has directly targeted individual US businesses more than any modern US president.
Only in the past *two* For weeks, Trump himself has pledged to import John Deere with unimaginably high tariffs and threatened to send the Justice Department after Google.
In the past, Trump has called for boycotts of Apple and Harley-Davidson, accused Amazon of defrauding the US Postal Service, threatened General Motors over where it plans to build its cars and called Facebook “the enemy of the people.”
“Donald Trump is attacking iconic companies — symbols of American capitalism,” Sonnenfeld said. This is revenge and unprecedented interference in the decision-making of the private sector and weakening the rule of law.”
Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, described the attacks on Deloitte as “disgraceful.”
Pinter, who is a law professor at the University of Minnesota, said Trump’s son is acting as an agent of Trump’s retaliation against the company.
Painter said the action against Deloitte’s federal contracts was an “abuse of federal contracting law.”
“Federal procurement is based on quality and price, and therefore value to taxpayers, not those who support the president politically or not,” Painter said. Even if Deloitte itself supported Trump’s political rival, it should not come at the cost of a government contract.”
In a statement to CNN, Trump Jr. said the Deloitte employee “had the right to disclose the communications, the Washington Post had the right to copyright them, and as a private citizen I have the right to speak my mind about where my tax dollars go.” ”
Trump Jr. went on to criticize the Deloitte employee for leaking the private conversation and the Post journalist for not warning his source that “when you get involved in the political process like that, it’s almost always there.” Public reaction.”
(The Post said the newspaper notified the Deloitte employee that his name might become public.)
Trump Jr. told The Wall Street Journal in an op-ed published over the weekend that described him as the “crown crown prince of the MAGA world” and that he has no interest in government and no plans to run for office.
Asked about the attacks by some in Trump’s circle, Deloitte spokesman Jonathan Gundall told CNN in a statement that the private messages were shared by someone “on their own volition and without the knowledge of Deloitte, which is a nonpartisan firm.”
“Deloitte is deeply committed to supporting our government and business clients, and we have a long history of doing this across parties and governments,” said a Deloitte spokesperson.
Deloitte did not respond to questions about whether the company has disciplined the employee or plans to.
Unlike other companies threatened by Trump with shipping jobs overseas or closing factories, the actions at issue in the Deloitte case centered around one individual at the company. Even the leaked private messages did not mention Deloitte, the Post reported.
“Deloitte has about 150,000 professionals inside the United States, and one person does not represent the entire company,” said Yale’s Sonnenfeld. “They have a right to have their voice.”
“It’s hard to see how a company legally can, or morally should, be threatened with retaliation for an employee’s personal activities,” said Norman Eisen, a CNN analyst and senior government studies fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“But Trump and his allies have telegraphed their intention to arm the Justice Department and the administration to go after their enemies,” Eisen said.
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