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‘Epstein will forever be a loser in people’s minds and Donald Trump doesn’t hang out with losers,’ a Trump insider says. ‘It’s off-brand’ 

  • In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady gets some perspective from a Trump associate on why the president is so exorcized about Jeffrey Epstein.
  • The big story: Trump humiliates Powell.
  • The markets: Down across the board.
  • Analyst notes from EY-Parthenon on Fed independence, ING on home sales, and Wedbush on Tesla.
  • Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune. 

Good morning. I once asked Donald Trump if he had ever turned down an offer to put his name on a product. His answer: coffins. 

It didn’t matter that these were gorgeous, high-end coffins, he explained. He didn’t want his name associated with death. There was nothing aspirational or success-oriented about that. Coffins, he told me, were “off-brand.”

This was in 2007, a year when Trump had his own brand of vodka, steaks, water, furniture, shirts, suits, and ties, alongside the hotels, casinos, golf courses, modeling agency, educational company, and other ventures bearing his name. While the future president may have been battling critics over his net worth and decision to let Miss USA Tara Conner retain her crown if she entered rehab, he was still a media celebrity who was much in demand.

I was interviewing him at Trump Tower on a day when he was giving $10,000 to Wesley Autrey, a construction worker who had jumped on a subway track to save a man’s life. “In life, you have fighters and nonfighters. You have winners and losers,” Trump told me. “I am both a fighter and a winner.”

I thought of that this week after speaking to someone in Trump’s circle about the president’s desire to distance himself from any mention of his name next to Jeffrey Epstein. This associate framed the issue as one of personal branding. It didn’t matter if Trump’s association with Epstein was before the financier was accused of sex trafficking, this person argued. “Epstein will forever be a loser in people’s minds and Donald Trump doesn’t hang out with losers,” they said. “It’s off-brand.”

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

President Donald Trump returning to the White House from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 15, 2025.
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NIQ CEO on going public: ‘We’re sitting on a goldmine of data. We cover 85% of the world’s population’

  • In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to NIQ CEO Jim Peck.
  • The big story: Trump’s name appears in the Epstein files.
  • The markets: Up on news of tariff deal with Europe.
  • Analyst notes from Nomura Research Institute, Macquarie, and Oxford Economics on Trump’s promise that Japan would invest $550 billion in the U.S.
  • Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune. 

I spoke yesterday with NIQ CEO Jim Peck after his consumer intelligence firm had debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. Formerly NielsenIQ, it was created four years ago when the private equity firm Advent International bought Nielsen’s Global Connect business in a leveraged buyout for $2.7 billion.

When it comes to leveraging AI, access to proprietary and high-quality data is obviously a plus, and NIQ has plenty of that. 

Yesterday’s IPO raised $1.05 billion for NIQ. With $4.3 billion in total debt on an adjusted EBITDA of $741 million last year, Peck needs the money. “The real value is the capital,” he said. “It’s not a brand awareness thing. We’re buying down the debt and increasing the cash flow.”

After a transformation that included $400 million in AI upgrades, Peck says he’s optimistic about what’s next. “We’re a company that is perfectly suited to leverage AI in all its forms,” he argued. “We’re sitting on a goldmine of data. We cover 85% of the world’s population as far as shopping behavior and we do business with every relevant brand and retailer on the planet.”

“We can tell them how their market share is doing in Brooklyn, New York. We can say whether it’s because of a pricing promotion or something else, and we can tell them if more 60-year-old males are buying the product … We cover the earth’s shopping behavior.”

Fascinating stuff. Then again, the stock’s 9.5% drop on its first day of trading shows investors also brought the company down to earth, too.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Photo via NIQ

NIQ CEO Jim Peck
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