Seven colossal multinational corporations with a long history of sponsoring the Republican National Convention (RNC) are boycotting it this year, presumably because they refuse to associate their brands with the divisive racism and vulgar ignorance of presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

Bloomberg, Wells Fargo, UPS, Motorola, JPMorgan Chase, Ford, and Walgreens all sponsored the RNC the last election, which is the meeting where Republican delegates officially crown their nominee for the presidential election. But this time around Republican party is currently descending into a quagmire of racially-charged and universally toxic chaos, and its corporate sponsors are left backing away in horror as the “party of business” becomes untouchable.

Donald Trump’s racism and misogyny has bewildered the party elite, who can’t figure out whether to pander to Trump’s supporters and accept his hate speech, or condemn him as the worthless bigot that he is. You can smell the fear off Paul Ryan, Republican Speaker of the House, as he frantically makes transparent manoeuvres in a desperate attempt to save his career.

Trump is a “textbook racist,” he says, but the best Republican candidate; Trump has no respect for separation of powers and Ryan might have to sue him if he becomes president, but actually President Trump would be fine and we should vote for him. Other Republicans can no longer look to Ryan for leadership – he cannot come up with a consistent position on Trump and is too preoccupied with his own flailing political career to offer guidance.

Meanwhile, CEOs are keenly aware that nothing good can come from associating with the tumultuous storm of ideological divisions, homophobia, racism, misogyny, infighting, and the blatant hypocrisy of Ryan, the “leader” of the whole mess. Corporate America has spent decades and billions of dollars courting Republican politicians to do their bidding – when they back off, something must be deeply wrong.