The Art of Mixing Business and Politics

Prolific author, historian, and former senior government official Tevi Troy is out with a new book about politics. This one takes a close look at 18 iconic CEOs—men like Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, and Elon Musk—and their interactions with multiple presidents.

Troy (a friend) is the author of several insightful presidential books, including Shall We Wake the President?, Fight House, and What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted. His latest effort, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry, carries on the tradition of excellence while introducing new characters (business leaders) into his oeuvre.

Although the intersection of business and politics is (to some extent) a perennial concern, Troy’s book begins with the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant for a simple reason. In the decades following the Civil War, two things started happening: the rise of big corporations and the rise of big government. From sea to shining sea, the average American could not escape these two behemoths.

And while these two institutions sometimes exist in a symbiotic relationship, the relationship can also be adversarial. The result is reminiscent of asymmetric warfare. Presidents have more power, but CEOs can often outlast them.

Speaking of presidential power, everyone is likely familiar with Theodore Roosevelt as the “trust buster” who went after monopolies and those evil “robber barons”; this is well-trod territory. But when it comes to T.R.’s battle with business, Troy sets the record straight about one important detail: Muckraking 19th-century journalists, like Ida Tarbell and Sinclair Lewis, did not “alert” Roosevelt to unseemly business practices in the oil industry or meat-packing plants, respectively.

Instead, T.R. weaponized these writers to highlight “societal problems that Roosevelt wanted to address.” As such, they “brought additional [public] support—not to mention outrage—that would help Roosevelt achieve his policy goals.”

T.R.’s reforms might have been salutary for those of us who prefer to eat safe food, but readers who view CEOs as inherently nefarious might be surprised to learn that, aside from hiring workers and boosting the economy, CEOs can sometimes help the government. During the Great Depression, Rockefeller, Ford, and Charles Schwab “tried to prop up the stock market after the October crash.” After a meeting with Hoover, Ford raised wages at Ford Motor Company. And, obviously, business was keenly involved in helping the war effort during World War II.

Of course, before WWII began, Franklin Roosevelt (T.R.’s distant cousin) met with resistance from business leaders of his era regarding his domestic policies. Henry Ford, the famed auto exec who harbored anti-Semitic attitudes, was alarmed by the New Deal and the concomitant, semi-fascistic, and unconstitutional Blue Eagle emblem displayed by companies that supported FDR’s National Industrial Recovery Act, which established the National Recovery Administration.

Likewise, powerful media mogul Henry Luce turned on Roosevelt after FDR officially recognized Soviet Russia. Luce, Troy tells us, also opposed the president’s demagogic rhetoric, tax policy, and regulations. They say you should never pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel and paper by the ton, but FDR did just that.

These enemies were powerful, but Roosevelt also cultivated friends in an even newer media business: Harry and Jack Warner, a.k.a. Warner Bros. The duo used their studio’s films to buttress Roosevelt’s image.

One key takeaway from Troy’s book is that, whether you fight or befriend, the one thing CEOs simply cannot afford to do is ignore big government. The only exception Troy found is Steve Jobs. And even he dabbled in politics here and there. In other words, you may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you.

One of the more colorful and canny business leaders who learned this lesson was Lew Wasserman, a Hollywood mogul who advised agents not to talk to the press. “Stay out of the spotlight,” he said. “It fades your suit.” Wasserman went from mostly ignoring the government to courting its leaders, starting with hosting a fundraising dinner for John F. Kennedy and, later, befriending then-president Lyndon Johnson.

When Ronald Reagan became president, Wasserman rekindled his relationship with the Gipper, whom he had represented at MCA when Reagan was an actor. This was all part of his (successful) effort to lobby the president over rules regarding TV syndication. (After Reagan left office, Wasserman tried to get him to appear in Back to the Future Part III as the mayor of Hill Valley; Reagan did not accede to this lobbying effort.)

A decade later, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates would learn the same lesson as Wasserman—that you can’t ignore politics—as he battled an antitrust suit that might have broken up his company. As Troy notes, despite surviving battles with Bill Clinton’s Justice Department, Microsoft’s price subsequently dropped, and its market share fell considerably. Gates also seems to have learned a lesson—he subsequently beefed up his lobbyist presence in Washington, D.C. Nowadays, corporations have to be involved in government. Not lobbying is a dereliction of duty.

But cultivating relationships is not a one-way street. It’s smart for business leaders to get to know pols, and pols can benefit from knowing business leaders. And when their business is media, this is doubly true. Like his boyhood hero, FDR, Reagan didn’t shy away from courting such relationships. One such relationship was with the Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, who would sometimes host the Reagans for dinner parties.

Today’s right-wing edge lords would probably see this as an example of RINO Reagan being co-opted by the liberal media, but Reagan understood that you catch more flies with honey. There’s a reason that, despite existing in an era before Twitter (X), Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News, he was still known as “The Great Communicator.”

But that’s just one of the many insights gleaned from The Power and the Money. As you can imagine, we’ve merely scratched the surface regarding the relationship between business executives and the chief executive. There is much ground to cover, and Troy does it with great aplomb.

The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry

by Tevi Troy

Regnery History, 333 pp., $32.99

Matt Lewis is the author of Filthy Rich Politicians: The Swamp Creatures, Latte Liberals, and Ruling-Class Elites Cashing in on America (Center Street).