Delta CEO not happy with Trump’s tariffs as bookings are down: “Growth has largely stalled”

Delta Air Lines have announced a pause in their expansion plans following the huge lagoon of uncertainty that has opened up with Trump’s tariff turmoil.

CEO of the company Ed Bastian told CNBC that the decision to plant major tariffs on nations across the world before revoking almost all of them was “the wrong approach” to global business.

Trump’s trade policies have shifted like desert dunes in the past days and weeks, with the 47th President announcing a long list of tariffs on a sheet of cardboard with more than questionable mathematics behind the decision. The stock market has crashed and been somewhat revived in the past 72 hours after a post on his social media site revealed a 90-day pause on all the tax hikes.

‘We’ve seen a reduction in consumer confidence’

The leader of the free world claimed that over 70 countries had tried to “kiss his ass” in the wake of a major Wall Street wobble, but the White House declined to release the (definitely real) list of these countries, with many experts believing the rapid fire-sale of American bonds by the Japanese the straw that broke the camel’s back for Trump’s advisors, who are assumed to have persuaded him to go back on his Earth-shattering decision.

“In the last six weeks, we’ve seen a corresponding reduction in broad consumer confidence and corporate confidence,” Bastian told CNBC, highlighting the real-world reaction to the tariffs. He added that overall demand for travel was “quite good” in January but that things “really started to slow” in mid-February, with bookings lower than expected.

He admitted that “growth has largely stalled” amid what he called “broad economic uncertainty around global trade.”

Delta’s stock rose after Trump’s shock decision to lower some tariff rates for 90 days but they’re still down almost 27% this year; prices in the U.S. aerospace industry are also expected to rise in the near future.

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