Billionaire Trump Supporter Bill Ackman Begs Him For ’90 Day Time-Out’ on Tariffs to Avoid ‘Economic Nuclear War’

AP Photo/Richard Drew, File

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, a very public supporter of President Donald Trump who was out front during the 2024 campaign, begged the president on Sunday to delay his sweeping new tariff policy set to take effect this week, warning Sunday it could trigger an “economic nuclear war.”

In a lengthy post on his X page, the hedge fund manager called for a 90-day pause to give time for negotiations and avoid a global loss of confidence in the US.

The tariffs, part of Trump’s plan to rectify what he has classified as decades of wrongs in trade relationships, are scheduled to take effect on April 9.

“Business is a confidence game,” Ackman wrote. “The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe.”

Ackman, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital, said he agrees with Trump’s goal of fixing what he called a broken and unfair global tariff system.

But he warned that imposing massive tariffs on allies and adversaries risks freezing investment, damaging consumer confidence, and crushing the economy.

“If we go forward with this, markets will crash, consumers will stop spending, and companies will cut investment and jobs,” Ackman wrote.

He also warned that small and mid-sized businesses would be hit the hardest as they would be unable to absorb increases in their operating costs.

Ackman also said the country is on the verge of losing its reputation as a reliable trade partner and place to invest. “This is not what we voted for,” he said. The billionaire former Democrat’s full statement reads:

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.

President @realDonaldTrump 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.

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 president has an opportunity to call a 90-day time out, negotiate and resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals, and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country.

If, on the other hand, on April 9th we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate.

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?

I don’t know of one who will do so.

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. And that’s true even if they have no debt, and, unfortunately, there is a massive amount of leverage in the system.

Business is a confidence game. The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe. 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.

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.

May cooler heads prevail.

Ackman has been a high-profile supporter of Trump in recent months. After first endorsing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year, he backed Trump citing issues such as antisemitism and identity politics.

Last Thursday, he generated headlines when he wrote on X, “Sometimes the best strategy in a negotiation is convincing the other side that you are crazy.”