Deloitte feels Trump world's wrath over leaked JD Vance messages

CNN
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Trump allies are calling on the federal government to punish Deloitte after an employee at the consulting firm apparently leaked his private messages to JD Vance.

The attacks on Deloitte are just the latest example of major American companies being targeted by former President Donald Trump or those close to him.

Deloitte began to feel the wrath of the Trump world immediately after the Washington Post published an explosive story on September 27 revealing that Vance said in a private 2020 message that Trump had “completely failed to deliver” on his economic agenda. The Post did not disclose who corresponded with Vance, now Trump's vice president, and leaked those communications.

Donald Trump Jr., the former president's eldest son and campaign surrogate, immediately responded on social media the same day by revealing the Deloitte employee's identity and photo and suggesting his employer pay the price.

“Maybe it’s time for Republicans to end Deloitte’s taxpayer-funded gravy train?” Trump Jr. wrote on X, noting that Deloitte receives billions of dollars in government contracts. His post was retweeted by a Vance spokesman and amplified by Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller.

Trump Jr. told CNN he expressed his opinion as a private citizen.

Deloitte received about $3 billion from the U.S. federal government in fiscal year 2024, according to federal data. This includes nine-figure sums from major agencies such as the Department of Defense, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

Two days later, Trump Jr. spoke out in another tweet, asking whether Deloitte had already commented on an employee's “conspiracy” with the Postal Service to “help Kamala Harris.”

“We won’t forget,” Trump Jr. said in a post shared by GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt, who called on Deloitte to respond to the “outrageous” scandal.

Neither Trump nor Vance have publicly threatened Deloitte, and it's worth noting that Trump Jr. has indicated he has no plans to serve in the federal government. Representatives for Vance and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Still, the attacks on Deloitte fit a broader pattern of U.S. companies being targeted by Trump and his allies, and underscore the danger that the former president could use the federal government as a weapon when he returns to the White House in January.

“It's outrageous. “It shows how unsuitable Trump is as a candidate and how irresponsible he and his family would be if he were back in office,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder and president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, said in a telephone interview with CNN.

More than any modern US president, Trump has directly targeted individual US companies.

Only in the past *two* Weeks earlier, Trump himself vowed to impose unimaginably high tariffs on John Deere and threatened to send the Justice Department after Google.

In the past, Trump has called for boycotts against Apple and Harley-Davidson, accused Amazon of defrauding the U.S. Postal Service, threatened General Motors over where it plans to build its cars and called Facebook an “enemy of the people.”

“Donald Trump is attacking iconic companies – the very symbols of American capitalism,” Sonnenfeld said. “This is unprecedented vindictiveness and interference in private sector decision-making and undermines the rule of law.”

Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, called the attacks on Deloitte “shameful.”

Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, said Trump's son was acting as a proxy for Trump's own retaliation against the company.

Painter said that breaching Deloitte's federal contracts would constitute an “abuse of federal contract law.”

“Federal procurement is based on quality and price and therefore value to taxpayers, not on who does or does not support the president politically,” Painter said. “Even if Deloitte itself had supported Trump’s political opponent, it shouldn’t have cost them a government contract.”

In a statement to CNN, Trump Jr. said the Deloitte employee “had the right to leak the communications, the Washington Post had the right to print them, and as a private citizen I have the right to express my opinion about where to go.” my tax money goes.” .”

Trump Jr. went on to criticize the Deloitte employee as a “scumbag” for leaking the private conversation and the Post journalist as a “scumbag” for failing to warn his source that “when you get involved in politics like that.” Process interferes, which almost always happens. “public backlash.”

(The Post said the newspaper informed the Deloitte employee that his name could be published.)

In an article published this weekend that described him as the “crown prince of the MAGA world,” Trump Jr. told the Wall Street Journal he had no interest in ever working in government and had no plans to to run for office.

Asked about the attacks by some people close to Trump, Deloitte spokesman Jonathan Gandal told CNN in a statement that the personal messages were shared by an individual “at his own request and without the knowledge of Deloitte, a nonpartisan company.”

“Deloitte is deeply committed to supporting our government and business clients and we have a long track record of doing this across party lines and administrations,” the Deloitte spokesperson said.

Deloitte did not respond to questions about whether the company has disciplined the employee or plans to do so.

Unlike other companies that Trump has threatened for moving jobs overseas or closing factories, the actions in question in the Deloitte case focused on one individual at the company. According to the Post, Deloitte was not even mentioned in the leaked private messages.

“Deloitte has about 150,000 professionals in the U.S., and one person doesn’t represent the entire company,” said Yale’s Sonnenfeld. “You have a right to your own voice.”

Norman Eisen, a CNN analyst and senior fellow in government studies at the Brookings Institution, said it was “difficult to understand how a company can or should legally or morally be subject to the threat of retaliation for an employee's personal activities.”

“But Trump and his allies have made clear their intention to weaponize the Justice Department and the government to target their perceived enemies,” Eisen said, “and we must take the prospect of companies facing retaliation very seriously. “