Joe Nocera, Columnist

Savvy CEOs Are Learning to Manage Trump

The president-elect thinks he's in charge when executives kiss his ring. Actually, it's the other way around.

January 19, 2017 at 5:14 PM UTC

Corrected

January 19, 2017 at 7:13 PM UTC

Joe Nocera is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He has written business columns for Esquire, GQ and the New York Times, and is the former editorial director of Fortune. He is the host and writer of the Bloomberg-Wondery podcast "The Shrink Next Door."

Who's in charge here?
Photographer: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

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At first glance, it sure seems as though President-elect Donald Trump is having his way with big corporations. No sooner does he slam a fist on his desk, demanding that companies add American jobs, than they issue press releases promising to oblige.

Wal-Mart will add 10,000 jobs, it announced earlier this week. General Motors plans to invest $1 billion and add 7,000 U.S. jobs, it said. Bayer AG, the German pharmaceutical giant, promised to invest $8 billion in America, and add 3,000 jobs. And soon.