Tuesday, April 8, 2025 - Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, a staunch President Trump ally, has warned the world is on the brink of a “self-induced economic nuclear winter” as he begged the Republican leader to pause his sweeping tariffs.
“The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time
out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system.
Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and
we should start hunkering down,” Ackman wrote in a lengthy X post on Sunday
night.
“May cooler heads prevail.”
Ackman, who endorsed Trump’s run for President,
issued the stark warning as he insisted the US leader’s decision to enforce the
10% tax on imports was quickly losing the confidence of business leaders
worldwide.
“The country is 100% behind the president on fixing a global
system of tariffs that has disadvantaged the country. But business is a
confidence game and confidence depends on trust,” he wrote. “President [Trump]
has elevated the tariff issue to the most important geopolitical issue in the
world, and he has gotten everyone’s attention. So far, so good.
“And yes, other nations have taken advantage of the U.S. by
protecting their home industries at the expense of millions of our jobs and
economic growth in our country,” he continued.
“But, 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. “
“The country is 100% behind the president on fixing a global
system of tariffs that has disadvantaged the country. But business is a
confidence game and confidence depends on trust,” he wrote. “President [Trump]
has elevated the tariff issue to the most important geopolitical issue in the
world, and he has gotten everyone’s attention. So far, so good.
“And yes, other nations have taken advantage of the U.S. by
protecting their home industries at the expense of millions of our jobs and
economic growth in our country,” he continued.
“But, 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. “
Calling for a 90-day time-out, Ackman urged Trump to
renegotiate the “unfair asymmetric tariff deals.”
He warned, too, that launching an “economic nuclear war”
would only see businesses grind to a halt, as well as consumers closing up
their wallets.
“What CEO and what board of directors will be comfortable making large,
long-term, economic commitments in our country in the middle of an economic
nuclear war?” he said.
“When markets crash, new investment stops, consumers stop
spending money, and businesses have no choice but to curtail investment and
fire workers. And it is not just the big companies that will suffer. Small and
medium size businesses and entrepreneurs will experience much greater pain.
Almost no business can pass through an overnight massive increase in costs to
their customers.”
“The consequences for our country and the millions of our
citizens who have supported the president — in particular low-income consumers
who are already under a huge amount of economic stress — are going to be
severely negative. This is not what we voted for,” he added.
Ackman’s plea came as Trump’s sweeping tariff
plans continued to hammer global financial markets on Monday after he
warned foreign governments they would have to pay “a lot of money” to lift the
levies that he called “medicine.”
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