Washington:
US President Donald Trump’s tariff move has drawn a rare pushback from Bill Ackman, a billionaire investor among his top supporters. He has listed the perils of tariffs, the most significant of which is a blow to the US reputation as a trading partner. Ackman also claimed the formula used by the Trump administration to calculate the tariffs was wrong, and the tariffs appeared four times larger than they were.
“President Donald Trump is not an economist and therefore relies on his advisors to do these calculations so he can determine policy. The global economy is being taken down because of bad math,” he wrote on X.
He said business is a confidence game and that confidence depends on trust, suggesting that Trump violated that trust.
“The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe. The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president are going to be severely negative. This is not what we voted for,” he said.
Ackman acknowledged that the US suffered from unfair trade practices, but said the disproportionate tariffs threatened to destroy the trading confidence that others had in the US.
“By placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital,” he wrote in a long post on X.
‘Economic Nuclear Winter’
Calling the tariffs policy an “economic nuclear war”, he said it will bring business investment to a halt, make the consumers close their wallets, and end up damaging the US’ reputation – which may take decades to rebuild.
“When markets crash, new investment stops, consumers stop spending money, and businesses have no choice but to curtail investment and fire workers,” he warned, pointing out that not just big ones, but smaller businesses will also get hit.
The US is “heading for an economic nuclear winter,” Ackman warned, advising Trump, “We should start hunkering down”.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer at JPMorgan Chase & Co, also warned of inflation that may lead to recession. In his annual letter to shareholders, he flagged a lack of trade deals between the US and its closest allies and suggested that the US develop closer trade ties with countries like India instead of asking them to align themselves with the US.
Warning shots were heard from staunch loyalist Senator Ted Cruz as well, hinting at a rebellion brewing in the Republican camp. “If we go into a recession, particularly a bad recession, 2026, in all likelihood politically, would be a bloodbath,” he cautioned on his Verdict podcast.
The criticism came on a day Trump’s protectionist policies worsened a selling frenzy on trading floors across the world, extending losses to trillions since the President announced reciprocal, yet discounted, tariffs on the world. He, however, struck a defiant note on Monday, equating the tariffs to a “medicine” that was required to fix the economy.
