Unlike in Mr. Trump's first term, US business leaders have remained publicly silent on the president's trade policies, despite voicing strong private concerns. Executives at the Yale CEO caucus expressed alarm at news that the Trump administration could double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium, but avoided asking tough questions during a question-and-answer session with Mr. Trump at a business roundtable hours later. Corporate leaders attending the Yale conference included Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and Albert Burra of Pfizer, among others. In an impromptu survey, 44% of CEOs said they would only collectively criticize a president's policies if the stock market fell 20%, another 22% said it had to fall 30% to take a stand, and nearly a quarter said it was not their job to speak out against the government. According to former Medtronic CEO Bill George, many business leaders fear that public criticism will make them a target for the president and prompt him to stick with the tariff agenda. At the same time, the outlook for the economy has darkened, with the percentage of executives who say they are optimistic about the U.S. economy falling from 67% in the fourth quarter of last year to 47% now, according to an IACPA survey. (Jin Ten)