if that s the case, you can bet you ll be watching it right along with us on cnn. christina, this changes the calculus. these executives have to be much more measured in what they say, because people from both parties buy their goods, they cannot ali alienate either side of their customer base. that s right, poppy. a lot of these ceos are reluctant to go on camera to begin with, because of how these issues can be politicized. another big thing is, look, there were 17 million americans working in manufacturing jobs back in 2000. there are 5 million less today. the big question is, how do you bring that back without hurting profit margins which will in turn have a negative impact on the economy? there is a law of unintended consequences. all of these ceos are worried
him. we re talking about big companies like dell, johnson & johnson, ford, 3m, general electric. you get the gist. we ve got complete coverage. athena jones is at the white house, christina ristina alesci me here. i saw one woman, we need a few more women ceo s. i think she s from campbell s. they don t like things he s done like the travel ban. how do they thread the needle? they have to walk a careful line. in these meetings which are closed door, we don t know what s said. and everybody is really careful when they come out of it because they don t want to anger the president, they don t want to be on his wrong side, they want to be invited back. it s hard to thread the needle. oftentimes really controversial stuff doesn t really come up in these settings, based on what i m told after these meetings happen. you re so tapped into these ceos. what do you think the number one
thing is they want to see from the president for their businesses? the number one most c contentious issue is something they re not all on the same page on this, the border adjustment tax. some manufacturers import parts from other countries in order to manufacture their products here. a border adjustment tax would hurt their ability to do that. i know that you know a fairly mid-size manufacturer, cummins, makes industrial parts in the u.s. but a lot of its parts come from elsewhere. it supports jobs here in the u.s., but the materials are coming from overseas. it s a very complicated issue that the president is really going to have to walk through. and the republicans, the gop, are actually in favor of that border adjustment tax. a delicate dance, christina. marilyn houston is the head of