Elaine Chao: ‘What you all want is certainty and you’re not going to get it’

• In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on how CEOs are dealing with the Trump Administration.
• The big story: Musk rallies against his critics.
• The markets: Low drama but no growth.
• Analyst notes from Wells Fargo on federal government layoffs, Apollo on consumer fragility, and UBS on “stagflation.”
• Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. Get used to tariff chaos—and don’t expect any resolution soon. At Fortune’s CEO Initiative dinner in New York this week, the general consensus among the leaders on stage and filling the room was that this trade war could last well beyond 2025. Here were some other topline takeaways from three speakers in attendance. 

As former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross noted: “There’s tariff policy, tax reform, regulatory reform. Trump needs the whole package to work. He has a complicated mosaic that he has to put together and he’s got to get it done very quickly.” Ross is personally optimistic that the Administration is addressing issues that matter. He’s also optimistic about the impact of Elon Musk, saying “I can’t wait until he gets to the IT environment. In Commerce, we had 72 different IT systems, no two of which could talk with each other and most of them were from the 70s and 80s. It’s the world’s largest service business that’s using archaic equipment. Musk, I’m sure, is going to address that but he’s wisely doing the easier things first. My own view is that he’s going to find far less corruption than he thinks but plenty of waste.”

Elaine Chao, who served as Transportation Secretary in the first Trump Administration, advised business leaders to lay low and accept that any planning has to be agile. “This is going to be a volatile period. What you all want is certainty and you’re not going to get it.”  As for DOGE, she said, “Everyone agrees that there is waste and inefficiencies in the government. Usually, special government employees have to file financial disclosure reports. I think a scalpel rather than a machete would produce a more effective government for the American people."

Interestingly, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, who competes with SpaceX, was sanguine when I asked about Musk’s potential conflicts of interest. “I think it would be very obvious and very damaging if any sort of funny business was played out,” he said. “At least for now, I’ve got no reason not to trust the system.”

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Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com