Ballroom donors will dance like someone's watching

Wells Fargo & Company

29/09/2026 13:00

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
By Gabriel Rubin
WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Business titans toasted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington last week, and some will probably be back soon to be roasted. Democrats, giddy about November’s midterm elections, plan to use their congressional mantles to probe companies that have been cozy with the Trump administration. The oversight will be an onerous and costly distraction, and Capitol Hill has been the end of the line for many CEOs.
With President Donald Trump’s approval rating languishing in the low 30% range, Republicans are already warning Corporate America about ballot-box repercussions. Investigative targets would include companies that contributed funds to the commander-in-chief's $400 million ballroom project and ones that had business dealings with his family. Representative Jamie Raskin, who is in line to run the House Judiciary Committee if Democrats win the chamber in November, has flagged what he calls systems of bribery, kickbacks and financial corruption. 
E-commerce powerhouse Amazon AMZN.O, cable operator Comcast CMCSA.O and software goliath Microsoft MSFT.O are among the publicly named corporate donors to Trump's White House renovation project already scrambling to explain themselves. Law firms that struck deals with the Oval Office to preserve security clearances and government contracts or which have otherwise advised the administration, including Kirkland & Ellis, also would be in the political crossfire. The AI, defense, semiconductor, mining and energy industries may be scrutinized for federal grant and loan money they received.
Complying with such investigations is often time-consuming and expensive, even before subpoenas arrive. Document requests, internal audits and retention of crisis-PR teams and outside legal counsel all suck up valuable resources. Even highly coached bosses falter in the glare, too. 
Wells Fargo WFC.N CEO John Stumpf stepped down a decade ago soon after he endured two congressional grillings over a fake-accounts scandal at the mega-bank. Boeing's BA.N Dave Calhoun told Congress in 2024 he would see through a safety crisis after one Republican senator asked why he was still in his job; he was gone by the end of the year. Mark Zuckerberg has greater job security by virtue of his voting control over $1.8 trillion Meta Platforms, but his 2018 hearing before Senate Judiciary, Commerce and Energy committees marked a turning point in the debate over self-policing social media.
When US government power is divided, and legislative prospects bleakest, such inquiries get a lot of attention. Rather than try and impeach a president who cannot run again, political capital will be devoted instead to examining those companies and individuals perceived to have engaged in and enabled wrongdoing. Captains of industry and their shareholders should be braced to pay a price. 
     
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CONTEXT NEWS
House Democrats preparing for a possible return to power after the US November midterm elections are developing a broad investigative strategy targeting companies that have had dealings with President Donald Trump.

(Editing by Jeffrey Goldfarb; Production by Maya Nandhini)
((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on RUBIN/gabriel.rubin@thomsonreuters.com))