WASHINGTON (TNND) — As President Donald Trump digs in his heels and sticks to his controversial global tariffs, some of the most influential names in business are starting to speak out against them, including a billionaire investor who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election.
In a series of social media posts, Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman gave Trump’s economic team a brutal dressing down for, in his words, taking down the global economy with “bad math.”
“The formula used by the administration to calculate tariffs made other nations’ tariffs appear four times larger than they actually are. President (Donald Trump) is not an economist and therefore relies on his advisors to do these calculations so he can determine policy,” Ackman said.
The billionaire said Trump’s economic team must course correct before their reciprocal tariffs take effect Wednesday, “before the President makes a big mistake based on bad math.”
Ackman also called on Trump to pause individualized tariffs on trading partners for 90 days while negotiations for more favorable trade conditions take place.
“Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down,” Ackman said.
In response, top White House economist Kevin Hassett said, “I would urge everyone, especially Bill, to ease the, ease off the rhetoric a little bit.”
Ackman isn’t alone in sounding the alarm. In an annual letter to shareholders, JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said tariffs will likely raise inflation and slow economic growth. Whether they cause a recession, he said, is in question. JPMorgan economists put the odds at 60%.
“The quicker this issue is resolved, the better because some of the negative effects increase cumulatively over time and would be hard to reverse. In the short run, I see this as one large additional straw on the camel’s back,” Dimon said.
During remarks at an event for the Economic Club of New York on Monday, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said, “Most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now.”
Fink said one CEO described the airline industry as a canary in the coal mine.
As stocks continued to slide during Monday’s trading session, Trump said now is the “only chance” to end what he calls unfair trade practices that take advantage of the United States.
“They cheat. They cheat like crazy. Canada cheats. Mexico cheats, just one of those things. But we are resetting a table and we’re gonna have great trade and we’re gonna have a very strong country. Our country is gonna be at a level that it has maybe never been,” Trump said.
Trump’s economic team has been hitting the airwaves in an attempt to sow a sense of calm, while acknowledging the U.S. economy is experiencing, in their words, “an adjustment.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a recession is not inevitable.
“Who knows how the market is going to react in a day, in a week? What we are looking at is building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity that I think the previous administration had put us on the course toward financial calamity,” Bessent said.
