If you’re a foreign leader or a CEO about to meet with President Trump — or if you want to avoid his vengeance — come bearing gifts.
Why it matters: Government officials and business leaders around the world have gotten the message and are strategizing about how to give Trump real or perceived wins to try to smooth out any relationship bumps with the new administration, and avoid economic or legal penalties.
- Some privately have compared him to a mob boss: Tributes are required, and the shakedowns come with the full weight of the U.S. government.
Zoom in: Many foreign and domestic corporations alike fear tariffs and potential changes to the tax code this year, and have tried to assuage Trump with offerings.
- Apple, Hyundai, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lily, Nvidia, Softbank and more have announced large investments in the U.S. since Trump was elected in November.
- Some of those investments were already in the works, but splashy public announcements gave Trump the chance to boast that he was bringing business back to America.
- After Hyundai this week announced a $21 billion investment in the U.S., Trump praised the company and made clear what the company would get in return: “Hyundai won’t have to pay any tariffs.”
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to send 10,000 troops to the U.S. border and has helped Trump bring down illegal border crossings — a key campaign promise of his.
- As a result, Mexico has had a much better relationship with the Trump White House than Canada, which has taken more of a stick than carrot approach.
- The president has responded with myriad tariffs, economic threats and personal insults toward Canada — and repeatedly has suggested Canada should be the U.S.’s 51st state.
Meta, which owns Facebook, agreed to a $22 million settlement in late January to help fund Trump’s presidential library after Trump had sued the company for kicking him off the platform. Meta’s founder, chairman and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was among the tech titans at Trump’s inauguration.
- Even X, owned by key Trump ally Elon Musk, agreed to pay $10 million in a settlement for booting Trump from the site — then known as Twitter — after he inspired the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
The other side: Trump and his team believe they’re just using the levers of power in ways that other presidents didn’t, but should have.
- Trump has long said that he believed other countries were ripping off the U.S. in trade, and he and his team believe he was elected to change the status quo through tariffs and other measures.
- A White House spokesperson told Axios: “President Trump is a masterful negotiator and is using his astute business acumen to reshape our economy and reinvigorate American economic dominance. Companies and countries are being forced to come to the table and retreat from their America Last policies and once again are betting on America.”
Between the lines: Still, some of the gifts are more personal than policy-oriented.
- U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer came to the Oval Office in February with an embossed letter from King Charles III, personally inviting Trump for a state visit.
- Starmer said it would be the first time in the modern era for the U.K. to host two state visits for a president.”This has never happened before. This is unprecedented,” he told Trump, who made a state visit there in 2019, during his first term.
- Trump, who has long had a fascination with the monarchy, beamed and called the king a “beautiful man, a wonderful man.”
In February, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos announced the overhaul of the liberal opinion section of the Post to go in a more conservative direction.
- Bezos dined with Trump — who has long railed about the Post’s coverage — later that day, Trump revealed later.
- Trump went on to praise the changes Bezos made at the Post. “I’ve gotten to know him, and I think he’s trying to do a real job. Jeff Bezos is trying to do a real job with The Washington Post,” he said last week.
- Bezos’s Amazon also is paying millions for the rights to a documentary on First Lady Melania Trump.
Bottom line: It’s pay-to-play in Trump’s America.