Ackman is off the Trump Train, warns of "self-induced, economic nuclear winter"

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Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, warned Sunday that going ahead with the new tariffs was tantamount to launching an “economic nuclear war.”

On Wednesday, Trump said he would impose significantly higher “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries that have the highest trade imbalances with the United States.

In a post on X, Ackman said “business investment will grind to a halt, (and) consumers will close their wallets” if the new levies do indeed come into force. “We will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate,” he added in the post, which was viewed 10.6 million times.

Unless Trump changes tack, “we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down,” the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management warned.

“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, adding that “the president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe.”

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Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, warned Monday that the tariffs threatened to raise prices, drive the global economy into a downturn and weaken America’s standing in the world.

“The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession,” Dimon said in an annual letter to shareholders. “Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth.”

Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, founder of the Duquesne Family Office, an investment firm, said in a post on X Monday that he did “not support tariffs exceeding 10%.” Druckenmiller is worth an estimated $11 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

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