How Trump has used his power to intimidate corporate America

How Trump has used his power to intimidate corporate America

Washington Post Dec. 16, 2025, By Dan Merica and Matthew Choi

President Donald Trump, arguably more than any other modern president, has used his bully pulpit to intimidate corporate America, leading large companies to recalibrate their approach to political speech in fear of a president willing to target them with his political following and executive powers.

And on Monday, we broke the latest alleged example of this with a lawsuit against Instacart, the mobile shopping giant.

Lisa Vedernikova Khanna, a Democratic congressional candidate in Virginia, sued Instacart on Monday, alleging that the California-based company “conditioned” her employment on her ending her campaign and that an internal Instacart “risk assessment” of her bid stated that the campaign “presented risk to the company” because it could involve criticizing the president and other Republicans.

“Instacart was poised to green-light my run up until they saw my policy positions and then they illegally fired me out of fear of retaliation from Republicans in the Trump administration,” Khanna said in an interview. “Corporate America has really been bending a knee out of fear by limiting the political expression of employees in different ways. And I think that’s really chilling and something that concerns us all.”

Lyndsey Grubbs, an Instacart spokesperson, said in a statement that Khanna’s “claim that her separation from Instacart was somehow politically motivated is flat out false,” alleging that she was fired because the company determined it was impossible for her to “fulfill the demands of her role” while also running for Congress.

You can read all about the details of the case here — including the back-and-forth between Khanna and Instacart — but the allegations against the company are a reminder that Trump has not only shown a willingness throughout his second term to use the power of the presidency to coerce corporate America, but that his effort has largely been effective.

Trump has demanded that companies fire certain employees, attacked corporate diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and solicited donations from corporate leaders for projects like his White House ballroom.

He raised millions of dollars from corporations for his second inauguration — including $100,000 from Instacart, according to Federal Election Commission data.

And he has also injected himself into corporate affairs, such as striking a deal so the U.S. government gets a stake in certain sales Nvidia makes with China.

“I said, ‘I want 20 percent if I’m going to approve this for you,’” Trump said earlier this year about the Nvidia deal. “For the country, for our country. I don’t want it myself. …. And he said, ‘Would you make it 15?’ So we negotiate a little deal.”

And he secured a “golden share” arrangement in Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel that gives the federal government final say over key parts of the company’s U.S. business.

“We won’t be able to call this section a rust belt anymore,” Trump said of his steel deal. “It’ll be a golden belt.”

It isn’t just corporations, either. Trump used the threat of sanctions against law firms to compel around $1 billion in free legal services to causes he supports from some of the nation’s top law firms. At the same time, universities have struck deals with the Trump administration to keep receiving federal funding in exchange for concessions.

It’s an unusual position for a president to inject himself into corporate affairs. And Republicans have long attacked Democratic presidents — especially former president Barack Obama and Joe Biden — for actions that they assailed as the federal government meddling in corporate work.

Trump’s work goes beyond that, however. It leverages his political movement — and the power they hold online — to pressure companies to worry that public opinion of their company could shift as quickly as Trump could type a message on Truth Social.

Khanna told The Post that her termination made clear to her that Instacart “viewed the potential for Republican backlash to be more significant than my legal right to run for office.”

“There is a clear fear that companies have that the Trump administration may come after them, even if that’s not really rooted in reality or fact, and even if he’s never talked about the company,” Khanna said. “It is really chilling in a democracy to have companies operating out of fear.”

Source: The Washington Post