Politics & Power Quote by Steve Wynn

Wynn’s line is built to sound bipartisan while functioning as a threat. “I support Democrats and Republicans” is less confession than credentialing: he’s laundering a partisan attack through the pose of neutrality, a classic move for executives who want their political preferences to read as common sense. Once that shield is up, he pivots to the real payload: fear as economic argument.

“Frightened to death” is melodrama with a purpose. It translates policy disagreement into existential risk, implying that the President’s ideas aren’t merely wrong but aberrant, “weird,” outside the bounds of respectable governance. “Weird” is doing a lot of work here because it’s vague; it invites listeners to fill in the blank with whatever terrifies them most about regulation, taxation, labor power, or government scrutiny. Vagueness is an asset when your goal is coalition-building within a business audience.

The most revealing phrase is “the business community in this company.” He’s not describing a public; he’s describing a bloc he can allegedly speak for. It’s a power play: I represent the people who invest, hire, and build, and our collective mood is your economic weather.

Then comes the coercive logic: “until he’s gone” suggests that normal commerce is being held hostage to electoral outcomes. “Sitting on their thumbs” frames inaction as prudence, not sabotage. The subtext is a warning to policymakers and voters alike: cross capital, and capital will withhold. In the post-crisis era when populist anger at elites was already simmering, this kind of rhetoric doesn’t just criticize a president; it rehearses the private-sector veto.