Several of Trump’s prominent supporters in the business community have warned against mutual tariffs and the resulting market fallout.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, an outspoken billionaire investor who supported the president last July following an attempted assassination in Trump, said in the long post at the end of Sunday that Trump could head towards a “economic nuclear winter” except that Trump is calling a “timeout” in his tariff plans.
“The president has the opportunity to call timeouts on Monday and have time to run to fix the unfair customs system,” writes Ackman.
“Or alternatively, we are heading towards a self-induced economic core winter.
“The cooler head will win.”
In his post, Ackman argued that the United States is “100% behind the president by modifying the global system of tariffs that put the country at a disadvantage.”
“But business is a game of confidence and trust depends on trust,” Ackman added.
On Sunday evening, after the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell more than 10% in the trading sessions on Thursday and Friday, stock futures marked the third day of a sudden loss, with Nasdaq (^ixic) entering the bear market.
The White House’s announcement of Trump’s mutual tariffs on Wednesday, dubbed “liberation day,” shocked investors and surpassed most Wall Street forecasts. Early estimates include a total tariff rate on all US imports in the significantly north of 20%, which is the highest in over a century.
Wall Street strategists have significantly cut stock market forecasts in response to Trump’s tariff plans, which has led to at least one company entering a recession this year.
Ackman said Trump’s rollout of these tariffs has begun to move “a process that destroys confidence as a trading partner, a place to do business, and a market for investing capital.”
Instead, Ackman called on Trump to begin a 90-day timeout, “to launch negotiations on unfair asymmetric tariff transactions and induce trillions of new investments in our country.”
“On the other hand, if an economic nuclear war was launched in all countries around the world on April 9th, business investment would cease, consumers would close their wallets and pocket books, seriously undermining their reputation in the world, which would take years and decades.
“Which board will be comfortable with CEOs and boards that will make our country comfortable with large, long-term economic commitments amid the economic nuclear war?
“Don’t you know who would do that?”
