CEOs on Guard as Trump Rattles Companies With Series of Edicts

For American CEOs, reaping the rewards of a Donald Trump presidency is a little more complicated the second time around, in an administration that increasingly pairs conventional conservative deregulation with populist state intervention in big business.

In the last week, the president has fired off a series of demands and edicts aimed at C-suites, all in service of shoring up his political fortunes as midterm elections approach.

Trump signed an executive order pressing defense contractors to cut buybacks, and individually called out Raytheon, the defense unit of RTX Corp., an aerospace and defense behemoth that supplies the Patriot missile ...