The Haid Fund Honcho Bill Ackman joined a growing list of the billionaire donors by President Donald Trump calling for the White House to slam the brakes on the prices a few hours before Trump allowed a 90 -day break on reciprocal prices for most countries that came into force on Wednesday morning.
Ackman went to social networks early Wednesday, asking Trump to take a 90 -day break on prices, arguing that the president can “achieve his goals without destroying small short -term businesses”.
In a long post on X, Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, issued a disastrous warning of what could happen if the prices were not immediately stopped.
“If the president only pauses the effect of prices soon, many small businesses will go bankrupt,” wrote Ackman. “Average companies will be following.”
Ackman has joined other billionaires, some of whom have supported Trump’s campaign for re -election, transforming a cold shoulder to the increasing tariff war. Trump claims that prices are necessary to level the rules of the game for American importers, saying: “foreign trade and economic practices have created a national emergency”.
New York, NY – June 17: Bill Ackman speaks during the dinner of the Pershing Square 2024 Foundation Prize at the Park Avenue armory at the Park Avenue armory on June 17, 2024 in New York. (Photo of Jared Siskin / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Jared Siskin / Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
He was not immediately clear if the decline in his billionaire sympathizers prompted Trump to take a break.
Other billionaire magnate – including the investor and PhilanthropE Stanley Druckenmiller, the owner of Citdel Kenneth Griffin and even the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, principal advisor of the president – said against Trump’s prices after supporting the president’s re -election campaign.
Speaking during an event in Miami on Monday evening, Griffin called Trump’s prices “huge political error”, according to The Wall Street Journal. Rarely Social media message Sunday, Druckenmiller wrote: “I do not support prices greater than 10%.”
Musk publicly exploded Trump’s principal commercial advisor, Peter Navarro, one of Trump’s pricing policy architects, calling him “really a moron” and “dumber that a brick bag” after Navarro described it as a “car assembler”. In a live speech towards the conference of the Italian League Congress in Florence, Italy, on Saturday, Musk expressed the hope that the United States and Europe create “a very close and stronger partnership” and soon reach a “zero-tail” policy.
A 10% tariff on all American trade partners entered into force on Saturday. Additional reciprocal prices against more than 60 countries which place rights on American imports have entered into force at 12:01 pm Wednesday. But Wednesday afternoon, Trump stopped the reciprocal prices on most countries about 1 p.m. after they entered into force and eight days after announcing them at a press conference in the White House.
The break would not apply to China, because government representatives did not want to conclude an agreement, according to the secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
Trump had already increased tariffs on China to 104% after China refused to retreat by imposing a rate of 34% on American products. Wednesday, China responded by increasing the prices on 84%American products, which prompted Trump to stick on an additional 21%, bringing the China’s rate to 125%.
On Wednesday, the countries of the European Union supported the European Commission’s proposal to postpone Trump’s prices on steel and aluminum with a set of countermeasures.
Ackman has spoken out against prices, saying that it “receives an increasing number of emails and small businesses in which I do business or that I have invested, expressing the fear of not being able to transmit their increased costs to their customers and will undergo severe consequences.”
In his post Wednesday, Ackman shared an email from the founder of a cold brewing coffee company he said he received before the reprisals announced by China. The founder of Cold Brew Coffee said that its cost for glass bottles from China will increase by 50%, while Chai from India will increase by 26%and coffee imported from Ethiopia, Peru and Canada will increase by 10%.
“Will my clients tolerate a doubling close to their contract costs overnight, or will they expect that I absorb the increases that my sellers are already threatening?” The owner of the company wrote in the e-mail in Ackman. “If customers are resisting price increases and my employees demand higher wages to compensate for their cost of living, we find ourselves in a lost -perceive scenario – no spending and no jobs.”
Ackman finished his article by writing: “Let the cooler heads prevail.”
After Trump’s announcement that he paused on the prices on most countries, Ackman published a series of new articles on X, including one saying: “It was brilliantly executed by @realdonald Trump. TexBook, Art of the Deal.”
“The advantage of the approach of @ Realdonaldtrump is that we now understand who our favorite business partners are, and who are the problems. China has been a bad actor,” said Ackman in an article. “Our counterparts also have a taste of living if they do not remove their trade barriers.”
Ackman added: “This is the perfect configuration for commercial negotiations over the next 90 days” and he offered advice for China: “Pick up the phone and call the president. He is a difficult but fair negotiator. The more China holds and retaliates, the more the result for China.”
