Topline
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs took effect Wednesday over the concerns of many of the nation’s billionaires, as even some longtime supporters of the president—including Elon Musk—have expressed concern about the tariffs and their impact on the economy.
Elon Musk arrives for the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol … More
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Key Facts
Jamie Dimon: The JPMorganChase CEO told Fox Business on Wednesday he thinks a recession is a “likely outcome” of Trump’s tariffs—though he said he’s right now taking a “calm view” of the financial situation, “But I think it could get worse if we don’t make some progress here”—after Dimon expressed concerns in his annual letter to shareholders Monday morning, saying they “will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession.”
Elon Musk: The Tesla CEO shared a video early Monday of economist Milton Friedman touting free trade and the benefits of importing goods and reportedly lobbied Trump personally not to impose the tariffs, The Washington Post reported Monday. He’s also been sparring with Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro for praising tariffs—most recently saying Tuesday Navarro is a “moron” who’s “dumber than a sack of bricks”—and Musk’s brother (and Tesla board member) Kimbal Musk has criticized the tariffs as a “permanent tax” on Americans.
Bill Ackman: The hedge fund manager is a longtime Trump supporter but has repeatedly spoken out against the president’s tariffs, calling Tuesday for the White House to issue a 30, 60 or 90-day pause on the tariffs “to enable negotiations to be completed without a major global economic disruption” and saying Wednesday morning the financial chaos Trump’s tariffs have sparked are “not the markers of successful policy” and “many small businesses will go bankrupt” if they’re not paused soon.
Ken Griffin: The Citadel founder—and major Republican donor—said at an event Monday that Trump’s tariffs are a “huge policy mistake,” with Bloomberg reporting he urged audience members to lobby Trump to step back on the tariffs and said he’s “really afraid of [the U.S.] abdicating our role of leadership for the free world.”
Daniel Loeb: While Loeb said in February he thought Trump’s initial tariffs on Mexico and Canada wouldn’t harm the stock market, the hedge fund manager has spoken out against Trump’s more sweeping policy, sharing a post Monday that noted the stock market chaos is “all in the head of 1 person. Who can change his mind at any time”—writing, “Exactly”—and sharing criticism of the tariffs by billionaire Ken Griffin and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Larry Fink: The BlackRock CEO suggested at the Economic Club of New York Monday that “the economy is weakening as we speak” and the market could fall another 20% from where it is now as a result of Trump’s tariffs, CNBC reports. Fink suggested the U.S. is “probably in a recession right now,” but he still expressed some optimism about the economy’s long-term outlook, saying, “In the long run, this is actually more of a buying opportunity than a selling opportunity” and “the vitality of the United States will persist.”
Joe Lonsdale: The Palantir cofounder said on X he has some concerns about the tariffs even though he understands where “some” of the Trump administration’s thinking “is coming from,” and shared a post on tariffs from Viahart founder Molton Hart early Monday, saying Hart’s argument that the “tariffs are structured in the wrong way” by taxing finished products and components at the same rate “reflects a lot of my key concerns about how the tariffs could be done better.”
Ken Langone: The Home Depot cofounder and GOP megadonor told the Financial Times he believes Trump has “been poorly advised by his advisers about this trade situation” and criticized how the tariffs were calculated—saying, “I don’t understand the goddamn formula”—telling the FT it would have been “more manageable and certainly more constructive” for the Trump administration to impose baseline 10% tariffs on foreign imports before starting negotiations.
Ray Dalio: Dalio, who founded the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, wrote Monday the tariffs are based on a broader “breakdown of the major monetary, political, and geopolitical orders.” He’s still expressed concern about Trump’s tariffs and their “practicality,” however, telling CNBC on Tuesday that while he “agree[s] with the problem” the tariffs are aimed at fixing, “I am very concerned about the solution.”
Stanley Druckenmiller: Longtime hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller expressed some optimism about tariffs in an interview with CNBC, referring to them as the “lesser of two evils” versus an income tax—though an unverified social media account believed to belong to Druckenmiller responded to a clip of his interview Sunday, arguing he “do[es] not support tariffs exceeding 10%.”
Ken Fisher: The Fisher Investments chairman attacked Trump’s tariffs Monday, saying on X the tariff plan is “stupid, wrong, arrogantly extreme, ignorant trade-wise and addressing a non-problem with misguided tools,” predicting it “will fade and fail.”
Thomas Peterffy: Contrary to many other billionaires, the Interactive Brokers founder has fully embraced Trump’s tariffs, telling Forbes on Tuesday he “think[s] it gives an opportunity to many entrepreneurs to gear up for producing and inventing either the same things that foreign countries sell us at cheap prices, or proper substitutes for them,” and claiming any price hikes will affect “plastic sh-t from China that is not absolutely necessary for people to have.”
Big Number
More than $10 billion. That’s how much Trump’s top 10 billionaire donors lost in the stock market on Thursday alone, as stocks plunged in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement. That’s only a fraction of the $270 billion in total that was wiped off the net worths of the world’s billionaires on Thursday, Forbes calculated, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Musk among those who were the hardest hit.
Tangent
Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk called Trump “the most high tax American President in generations” on Monday. “Through his tariff strategy, Trump has implemented a structural, permanent tax on the American consumer,” the Tesla shareholder said on X.
Chief Critic
Peterffy criticized his fellow Trump-friendly billionaires who have spoken out against the president’s tariffs, telling Forbes, “I think that they are short term, greedy, looking after their own pockets.”
What Has Trump Said?
Trump has dug his heels in on his tariffs and repeatedly doubled down in support of them, even as they’ve spurred chaos in the markets. “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” Trump said Wednesday morning on Truth Social after his tariffs took effect. The president staunchly defended his tariffs to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, saying they are “the only chance our country will have to reset the table” in terms of the U.S.’ trade with other countries, and that while other presidents wouldn’t be willing to impose such controversial tariffs, “I don’t mind going through it, because I see a beautiful picture at the end.”
Which Other Trump Allies Have Spoken Out Against Tariffs?
Trump’s tariffs have also garnered criticism from a number of non-billionaires who have typically been sympathetic to the president. Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy has suggested he’s lost up to 15% of his net worth as a result of the stock market plunge from Trump’s tariffs and said “everything’s in the s—-ter” because of the president’s policy—but also has continued to back the president, saying Trump is a “smart guy” even as he dubbed Monday’s stock market plunge “Orange Monday.” “I’m gonna roll with [Trump]
for a couple days, a couple weeks, see how this pans out,” Portnoy said, as quoted by the Associated Press. Podcaster Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump during the election, also blasted the president’s trade war with Canada as “stupid,” while conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has called Trump’s belief in tariffs “really problematic,” arguing Tuesday the Trump administration’s current strategy is “a chaotic rollout of global tariffs without any sort of clarity as to what we are attempting to achieve.” A growing number of Republican lawmakers who typically back Trump’s policies have also expressed concerns about the tariffs. “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., asked Trump’s trade representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday about the administration’s tariff strategy, saying he was “trying to get his head around” the White House’s approach. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said during the same hearing he hopes Greer “and the president are sensitive to companies potentially going bankrupt by these actions,” while noted tariff critic Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told CNBC on Tuesday that GOP colleagues have told him to “keep going” with criticizing the tariffs, though they won’t speak out themselves due to political concerns.
Will Trump Roll Back His Tariffs?
Trump has suggested he’s open to negotiating with other countries on their tariffs, saying Monday that discussions with other countries would begin “immediately” and telling reporters he’s open to reaching “fair deals” with other countries that put “America first.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also said Trump will negotiate with other countries—likely starting with Japan—but has suggested those negotiations may take a while, telling Fox Business on Monday that all the countries approaching the Trump administration about making deals means “it’s going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June.” The White House denied reports Monday suggesting the administration was considering a 90-day pause, however, decrying the rumor as “fake news,” and Trump said Monday he’s “not looking at” pausing the tariffs unilaterally. Congress could also undo Trump’s tariffs, and bipartisan legislation has been introduced that would require any tariffs the president wants to impose to be approved by Congress. That legislation remains a longshot to pass as of now and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has reportedly urged House Republicans to back Trump’s policy—though some GOP lawmakers are already backing the legislation, and more could follow suit if Trump’s tariffs continue to wreak economic havoc. A Florida-based stationery company is also challenging Trump’s authority to enact tariffs in court—with potentially another major legal challenge on the way this week from business groups—though it remains to be seen how those will play out.
Key Background
Trump announced his sweeping tariff policy during a “Liberation Day” event Wednesday, levying tariffs of 10% and up on imports from nearly all foreign countries—even uninhabited ones. The tariffs fulfill a longtime promise by the president to impose sweeping tariffs in order to restore manufacturing to the U.S. and punish other countries for purportedly unfair trade practices, which Trump has pushed despite economists long warning that doing so would raise prices for U.S. consumers and harm the economy. Billionaires’ criticism of Trump’s tariffs comes after dozens of them backed the president in the November election. More than 50 billionaires expressed support for Trump and billionaires funneled millions into his campaign, even as the now-president made sweeping tariffs a signature plank of his platform.
Further Reading
