How Wall Street Became Disillusioned with Trump

Vyacheslav Dvornikov

Apr 9, 2025

In the past few days, several notable financiers have spoken out against Trump's import tariffs, writes Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Among them:

1. Veteran investor Stan Druckenmiller, who was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's boss at George Soros's hedge fund. On Sunday, he posted a rare message on X, clearly stating his disagreement with the Trump administration. “I do not support import tariffs exceeding 10%,” he wrote.

2. Bill Ackman of Pershing Square, who previously actively supported Trump, called for a 90-day pause in tariffs to negotiate with other countries. Ackman warned that the alternative could be an “economic nuclear winter caused by ourselves.” “We are in the process of destroying trust in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market for capital investment,” Ackman wrote on X.

3. “Significant trade restrictions are a step towards isolating the US,” said Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

4. One of the most prominent figures in the banking industry, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders released on Monday that he is concerned about how Trump's tariffs will affect America's long-term economic partnerships. Tariffs, he said, will weaken the country in the long run. “'America first' is good, as long as it doesn't end with America being alone,” Dimon wrote.

5. Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel Securities, who was a very large donor to the Republican Party, also called the tariffs a huge mistake. 

Also among those who spoke out against the tariffs are the rarely publicly speaking Dan Sundheim of D1 Capital and Dan Loeb of Third Point. But so far, neither public statements nor behind-the-scenes negotiations have yielded results. According to sources, bank executives, including Dimon, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, and Charlie Scharf of Wells Fargo, met last week with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who urged them not to question the overall direction of the Trump administration on tariffs. “'Listen, nothing will change' — that's how the conversation began,” said one of the bank executives.

Dissatisfaction is growing not only on Wall Street but also in Washington, writes WSJ. More and more Republicans are signing onto a bill that would allow Congress to overturn tariffs by a simple majority vote. And Republican Senator Ted Cruz said he hopes Trump will listen to the 'angels' urging caution on tariffs, calling Elon Musk 'one of the angels.' 

Musk tried to personally persuade Donald Trump to abandon new tariffs on Chinese goods, but unsuccessfully, writes The Washington Post. Over the weekend, the businessman posted several messages on X mocking White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.

Commentary by senior partner of Movchan’s Group and LAIF strategy advisor Mikhail Portnoy

There is every reason to believe that the trade war declared by Trump on the world is a harbinger of much more serious upheavals ahead. We are witnessing the beginning of the disintegration of major monetary, political, and geopolitical orders. And what the new order will be is almost impossible to predict now. One thing can be predicted with a high degree of probability: markets have entered a zone of turbulence and will remain in this state for quite some time. Expecting continued stable and calm growth of stock markets is unlikely at least over the horizon of one year. From an investment portfolio perspective, it would be wise to increase the share of conservative instruments and market-neutral absolute return strategies. Including those that can earn both on declines and on high volatility in general.