Citadel's Griffin on Trump tariff talk: 'It's a huge mistake'

Yahoo

11-02-2025

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin doesn't sound happy with Donald Trump's tariff policies.
The founder and CEO of investment firm Citadel on Tuesday called aggressive trade talk from the new administration a "huge mistake," producing chaos that in Griffin's view poses an "impediment" to economic growth.
"From my vantage point, the bombastic rhetoric, the damage has already been done, and it's a huge mistake to resort to this form of rhetoric when you're trying to drive a bargain, because it like imprints, it sears into the minds of CEOs, policymakers," Griffin said during an appearance at a UBS conference in Miami.
The "uncertainty and chaos created by the tariff dynamics between us and our allies is an impediment to growth," he added. "It makes it difficult for multinationals in particular to think about how to plan for the next five, 10, 15, 20 years."
The comments are notable because of Griffin's standing on Wall Street and within GOP circles, as a big donor to Republican political campaigns. He said in December that he voted for Trump but didn't contribute money to his campaign, having already backed some GOP rivals. Griffin had previously referred to Trump as a "three-time loser."
Tariff threats have dominated Trump's early weeks in office. On Monday he signed an executive order to impose 25% duties on steel and aluminum regardless of the source country, starting March 12. Coming later in the week are Trump-promised reciprocal tariffs, which he has said are designed to equalize trade imbalances around the world.
The various moves follow an ongoing trade war with China over issues of illegal drugs and migration that escalated over this past weekend and could soon include Canada and Mexico. Duties on those American neighbors could be imposed on March 4.
Griffin had previously downplayed concerns about Trump's tariff policies in December at a DealBook conference in New York, arguing that it was unclear if new duties would be slapped on Mexico, Canada and China and the talk of tariffs was "small ball compared to the role that the world is looking to us for."
While his view of tariffs sounded more dire Tuesday, he did have some positive things to say about the new administration. He applauded some of its efforts to grow the US economy as "thoughtful."
Griffin said efforts to loosen some regulations across corporate America has been "really inspiring to corporate CEOs who have been buried in an avalanche of red tape over the course last four years."
The billionaire also praised Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for their attempt to shrink the US government.
In less than a month, Musk's DOGE has gained access to more than a dozen federal agencies in the effort to scale back programs. The legal ramifications of such sweeping actions remain unclear and have already faced challenges in the courts.
"It's an important new era in America where we have somebody who in the prime of their life, like at the absolute top of his game, is willing to take the time away from his incredibly successful businesses and to dedicate it for the better country," Griffin said of Musk, who runs several other companies, including Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX and X.
"Now, is he breaking a lot of glass? Absolutely, but he doesn't have that much time," Griffin added.
But tariffs didn't receive the same praise. In Griffin's view, they "are like what you do in the death throes of a nation," saying the duties raise barriers for competition with other nations such as China while protecting US monopolies.
The start of Trump 2.0 has not been what Wall Street expected in other ways, as well.
Dealmaking had its slowest month in January in more than a decade. A prized tax break for hedge funds and private equity firms came under threat. And big banks have been grilled over whether they "debanked" certain customers.
These complications were not part of the plan when Trump was elected in November, an event that set off a round of optimistic predictions about an M&A boom, looser rules and a more favorable approach to big Wall Street firms in Washington, DC.
Instead bankers ended January with the lowest number of announced M&A deals within the US since that same month in 2014, according to LSEG data.
Trump's new antitrust cops also signaled in the administration's second week that they weren't going to give a free pass to big mergers by blocking a potential union between Hewlett Packard (HPE) and rival Juniper Networks (JNPR).
And new uncertainties surrounding the president's tariff plans are leaving many businesses unsure about when to make big moves and what direction borrowing costs might take in the weeks and months ahead.
Other bankers acknowledged some of that uncertainty during separate talks Tuesday, while also urging optimism.
'There's a lot of policy that is shifting, and until we have more certainty on that policy, that's going to create a little bit of volatility, but the direction of travel should be more constructive,' Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon said at the UBS conference Tuesday.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) chief operating officer Jennifer Piepszak said at a separate Bank of America Securities conference in Miami that "what we hear from clients is optimism, but a bit of a wait-and-see approach around committing to significant investments.'
'We're 22 days into it, and I think there's still some uncertainty in terms of where a lot of the policy may go in the near term,' added Wells Fargo CFO Mike Santomassimo, speaking at the UBS conference.
"I think you sort of have to look a little bit past the first couple of weeks, and we still expect to see that momentum build throughout the year."
David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance.
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