Topline
Billionaire supporters of President Donald Trump—including Elon Musk—have spoken out in recent days as Trump’s sweeping tariffs have roiled global markets, expressing concern about Trump’s tariffs and their likely impact on the economy.
Key Facts
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.
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.”
Jamie Dimon: The JPMorganChase CEO issued his annual letter to shareholders Monday morning, which expressed concerns about Trump’s tariffs, saying that while there are some “legitimate reasons” for imposing them, they “will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession” and expressing concerns about the continued uncertainties around Trump’s tariffs and how they will “affect America’s long-term economic alliances.”
Bill Ackman: The hedge fund manager is a longtime Trump supporter but has expressed concern about the president’s tariffs, railing against Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and how the Trump administration calculated the tariffs and 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 that will harm the most vulnerable companies and citizens of our country.”
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 runs the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, said Monday, Dalio wrote 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 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%.”
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.
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. “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday morning regarding tariffs. “Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!” 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.”
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. Multiple lawsuits have also challenged Trump’s authority to enact tariffs, 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.