WASHINGTON – Kamala Harris the campaign actively warns business leaders that Donald Trump has a pattern of disregard for democracy and the rule of law that would threaten US economic growth — a closing argument meant to show the possible consequences for companies and workers if he returns to the White House.

It is a position that Trump’s team reject as they tell voters that prices will be lower and growth stronger than ever before if he wins Tuesday’s election. As a billionaire who made his name in real estate, the former president has advocated higher tariffs to bring more factories to the United States and tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations on the premise that it will lead to more investments.

The rival positions boil down to a fundamental distinction between the two candidates on how to guide the world’s largest economy: Harris’ team argues that the rule of law creates the certainty that can make markets and workers thrive, while Trump argues that rates and tariffs are rising and tax cuts are the key to growth.

Gene Sperling, who has guided three Democratic presidents on economic policy and now advises them The Harris campaignmade what he describes as a “common sense” case to funders and others about the dangers of a second Trump administration.

“A president who targets people, targets CEOs, targets companies, targets journalists and targets the opposition could have a devastating impact on investment confidence that has been solid over the past four years, but also part of America’s strength since its founding,” Sperling said.

But billionaire hedge fund investor John Paulson, a Trump supporter who considers himself a possible Treasury secretary, rejects criticism from the Harris campaign saying the world has been more stable under Trump and inflation has been lower.

“It’s completely false,” he said of Sperling’s argument that the rule of law is at risk. “When people make these claims, they’re totally fake. They are not based on reality. Trump is a brilliant businessman. He wants to cut wasteful spending and encourage growth.”

Trump derided his opponent’s handling of the economy as “stupid” and claimed the stock market would crash if he lost the election, even though the S&P 500 stock index has risen about 50 percent under the president. Joe Biden his term.

“We’re going to give our companies the lowest taxes, the lowest cost of energy, the lowest regulatory burdens and free access to the best and biggest market on the planet,” Trump said at a rally Tuesday in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “The problem is, if we had more of these idiots running our country, you would no longer have the big and best market because we are a nation in decline.”

Pushing Team Harris involves connecting January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol with Trump’s history of using the bully pulpit to attack the Federal Reserve as well as companies like Amazon, Merck, Comcast, John Deere and Toyota. Their argument is that companies are less likely to make long-term investments if democratic values ​​are attacked and election results are denied.

In addition to Sperling, corporate executives heard from Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary; Kenneth Chenault, former CEO of American Express; and Brian Deese, the former director of the National Economic Council for Biden.

A person familiar with the conversations said Harris campaign officials don’t have to push for it. Ostensibly apolitical CEOs privately raise the issue as their central concern about a Trump presidency, with the person insisting on anonymity to describe private conversations with business leaders who want to stay out of the election spotlight.

But Vanessa Williamson, a senior fellow in governance at the Brookings Institution, said the Harris campaign somewhat underestimated the risks, given the potential dangers.

“For the most part, Americans have been able to take law for granted,” Williamson said. “The kind of malfeasance and fraud that is endemic in other countries was really unimaginable here – and that’s a great thing, of course. But it also makes it hard for people to see how important government is to the functioning of markets.”

Both campaigns are competing for support from the business community. Trump has the billionaire’s backing Elon Muskowner of Tesla, SpaceX and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Billionaires like the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban I support Harris.

Many of the disputes centered on policy differences. Trump said the higher corporate tax rates favored by Harris would discourage investment, while the Harris team attacked his plans to eliminate Biden-era incentives for building computer chips, electric vehicles and other advanced factories because it costs the country’s factory jobs.

But the argument about the importance of democratic values ​​gained credibility in October after Nobel Prize for Economics it was awarded to three economists, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson, who showed that social institutions and the rule of law are essential to economic growth.

Acemoglu was among 23 Nobel Prize-winning economists who signed a letter saying Trump’s economic plans “would lead to higher prices, higher deficits and higher inequality.”

The letter said: “Among the most important determinants of economic success are the rule of law and economic and political certainty, and Trump threatens all of these.”

The subject has long fascinated Harris, a former California attorney general. Two people who work at the White House recalled that in 2022, Harris called for economic research to support his understanding that eroding democratic standards would hurt growth. Those people insisted on anonymity to discuss the request.

Similarly, Biden was nominated, Jeff Zients, White House Chief of Staff told CEOs at the business roundtable that a Trump return to the presidency would create uncertainty that would hamper growth. It was an argument that contrasted with Trump offering additional tax cuts to the group.

Neither the Business Roundtable nor the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed supporting the November presidential election. The business roundtable made keeping corporate tax rates at the current 21% their top legislative priority. Trump has promised further cuts to the corporate rate for US manufacturers, while Harris would like to raise it to 28 percent, an increase, though still less than the 355 rate in place until 2017.

Meanwhile, the Chamber has emphasized its willingness to advocate for its corporate members with whatever administration is in power.

Business Roundtable CEO Josh Bolten said in a statement this month that the organization supports the peaceful transfer of power. So far, Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after falsely claiming his 2020 loss was the result of a fraudulent election, a claim that helped fuel the 2021 insurgency.

“It may take time to finalize election results, and we urge all Americans to follow the processes set forth in federal and state laws for election determinations and an orderly transition,” Bolten said.