Inside the room where CEOs say what they really think of Trump’s policies

At a meeting of CEOs and other executives on Wednesday convened by the Yale School of Management, dozens of America’s business leaders sounded off on their concerns about tariffs, immigration, foreign policy matters and what many described as an increasingly chaotic, hard-to-navigate business environment.

“They’re being extorted and bullied individually, but in private discourse, they’re really upset," said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale management professor who organized the event, referring to recent deals that give the U.S. government a cut of certain Nvidia chip sales and a “golden share" in U.S. Steel.

The meeting included prominent corporate executives such as Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown, who also received an award for leadership; Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel; and Ethan Allen CEO Farooq Kathwari. Other attendees included the heads of major manufacturers, consumer brands, automakers, technology companies and investment firms. Many who shared their concerns Wednesday in the confines of a private conference room didn’t want to speak publicly for fear that their companies could be targeted by the administration or that they could attract criticism from Trump.

In a series of poll questions, the executives in the room made their frustrations known. Asked if tariffs had been helpful or hurtful to their businesses, 71% of respondents described the levies as harmful. Another question centered on the legality of tariffs. About three quarters of respondents said courts were correct in saying the tariffs are illegal as executed. The Supreme Court will take up the matter this fall.

Executives also said U.S. consumers and domestic importing companies were the ones bearing the brunt of the costs on tariffs, not international exporting companies or countries.

The Trump administration has made tariffs core to its economic agenda, hoping to spur a resurgence in domestic manufacturing by bringing jobs back to the U.S. from overseas. And while some companies, like Apple and pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, have announced plans to make more of their products domestically, most of the CEOs gathered Wednesday took a different view. When asked whether they planned to invest more in U.S. manufacturing and infrastructure, 62% of respondents said they didn’t plan to do so.

The reason, Yale’s Sonnenfeld said, is because tariffs, immigration policies and concerns about the economy are all weighing on leaders and preventing them from feeling confident enough today to make new investments. “They’re holding back doing anything," he said.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that the administration is working closely with business leaders to bolster the U.S. economy through “an aggressive pro-growth agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, and energy abundance."

“President Trump’s resounding Election Day victory sent a clear signal to the world: America is back in business," he said.

Not all CEOs in the room criticized the administration. Several who attended the event said they appreciated efforts among Trump officials to correct trade imbalances and reinforce the nation’s borders, but said they took issue with the way some policies were being carried out.

“There’s a fair amount of confusion," said Kathwari of Ethan Allen, which produces many of its products in the U.S. “The focus on making trade fair between America and the rest of the world is important, but now it’s got to be managed so it does not create chaos."

For their many concerns, though, corporate leaders still have plenty of confidence in the U.S. Asked whether American capitalism could compete with China’s socialist economy in the global race to develop artificial-intelligence tools, executives didn’t waver: Nearly three-quarters said they had faith in the U.S.

Event organizers didn’t ask the executives in attendance to disclose their political affiliations, though Sonnenfeld said he estimated, based on past surveys of the group, that the vast majority of those in the room identified as Republicans. Even so, attendees expressed alarm at many recent moves from Washington, including on matters involving the Federal Reserve.

CEOs were nearly unanimous in expressing displeasure about Trump’s efforts to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates: 80% of respondents said Trump wasn’t acting in the best long-term interests of America by doing so. In another question, 71% of respondents said the Fed’s independence had been eroded by Trump’s actions. Fed policymakers approved the first interest-rate cut in nine months on Wednesday—and signaled more cuts are likely.

A good portion of the discussion on Wednesday, those in attendance said, focused on so-called state capitalism. Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices will share a portion of certain overseas chip sales with Washington, while the U.S. will get what has come to be known as a “golden share" in U.S. Steel as a condition of Nippon Steel’s recent takeover. Some executives saw the recent moves as concerning, a sign of the government encroaching on the free-market ethos that long defined the U.S., or potentially favoring some companies over others.

“The government should not choose winners or losers in sectors," said Nick Pinchuk, the CEO of Snap-on Tools. He instead would like to see the government broadly support efforts to draw more workers into professions like manufacturing. “That’s a profession which delivers you from evil."

Write to Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com