- Citadel’s Ken Griffin says President Trump’s tariff policy is creating chaos in the C-suite, with a significant portion of executives finding the current economic climate more challenging than the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. The billionaire GOP megadonor and Trump supporter now says trade policies are endangering America’s exceptionalism.
Just months after he declared America “open for business” and pledged to do anything in his power to help President Donald Trump, Ken Griffin is slamming his policies.
The billionaire CEO of hedge fund Citadel says the White House’s tariff policy has plunged many CEOs into chaos and is dragging down what should be a period of rapid economic growth in the U.S.
“Right now, the biggest challenge for any investor is to try to understand how to navigate this moment of policy uncertainty,” Griffin said Thursday at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit in New York.
“I was with a group of 150 American executives over the last few days, and about 30% to 40% of that group said the last few months have been the most challenging period they have faced in their entire careers,” he continued.
“More than the financial crisis?” interjected Forbes editor-at-large Maneet Ahuja.
Griffin nodded, and went on: “Thirty to 40% have found the last several weeks to be the most challenging period of their career, because they’re building entire teams trying to understand how they are going to navigate the supply-chain challenges. Here you’ve got the auto companies literally in a state of panic about how they are going to build cars without access to rare-earth elements from China. This is not getting enough attention right here, right now.”
Earlier this month, Griffin called the tariffs “terrifying” and said they could be a pathway to “crony capitalism.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has by turns imposed, then rolled back, a series of tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners, including a 30% tariff on most goods from China and an astonishing 50% tariff on most steel and aluminum imports. Several groups have sued to halt the tariffs; the U.S. Court of International Trade last week ruled them illegal, but the decision is currently on hold while the administration appeals it.
Griffin also had harsh words for Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill that recently passed the House of Representatives. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill, which cuts taxes and the social safety net, would add $2.4 trillion to the U.S. national debt.
“The United States’ fiscal house is not right. You cannot run deficits of 6% or 7% at full employment after years of growth. That’s just fiscally irresponsible,” Griffin said.
“No question, the bill will add several trillion dollars” to the debt, he added.
It’s a stark reversal for the GOP megadonor, who has long contributed to Republican candidates. Griffin had hesitated to support Trump prior to the most recent election cycle, but in December said he had voted for the president, and declared to The New York Times, “I will do whatever I can do to help support the president-elect.”
“America is open for business again,” he said, while downplaying the potential impact of tariffs.
On Thursday, he walked back his praise.
“I’m going to own it,” he said. “I really thought we were looking at four years of just tremendous growth and tremendous American economic vitality.“
But there’s still time for a change, he added. “There’s still hope that the administration pivots and goes back to the pro-growth, low-tax, deregulation of America’s business mindset,” he said. “We’re still hoping that happens.”
