From Elon Musk to the CEO of JPMorgan Chase: These are the billionaires that are turning on Trump

The stock market has not responded well to news of tariffs, with trading on Tuesday diving after the White House confirmed that 104 percent duties had been placed on imports from China. The sweeping tariffs the Trump administration plans to impose have sent stock prices plummeting, erasing nearly a year of growth in just a few weeks.

Though many leaders of the big banks and major corporations have cozied up to President Trump before and after the election, some are starting to jump off the bandwagon.

Concerns coming from Wall Street

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, though he did not endorse Trump’s candidacy and hoped that Republicans would nominate another candidate in 2024, Dimon has avoided critiquing the Trump administration’s policies. President Trump has said that he has “great respect for Jamie Dimon” and he was said to have considered him for a role in his administration. On Monday, Dimon became one of the first major figures on Wall Street to forecast that Trump’s tariff policy would slow economic growth in the US, and could create a recession. These comments published in the bank’s annual report to shareholders, also warned that inflation is likely to increase and that many economists see a “greater probability of a recession.”

Similar comments were made by Blackrock CEO Larry Fink who said on Monday that the US economy might already be in a recession.

These comments will not be welcomed by the White House as they contribute to the mentality of nervousness that is leading markets to tumble. Investors are worried, and that is an emotion Wall Street doesn’t handle well.

Trump world divided over tariffs

But Diamon, a peripheral member of Trump’s orbit compared to other billionaires, is just the beginning. Bill Ackman, the founder, and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has said that Trump’s tariffs could cause a nuclear winter economically speaking and has called on the administration to at least, pause, their implementation. The billionaire posted on Tuesday that his post had been misinterpreted and that he stood behind the president, but that he wanted to see a 30, 60, or 90-day pause to give the administration time to negotiate and reach a deal. It remains unclear if Ackman will still support the president if he doesn’t move forward with a pause and his economic dystopian vision comes true.

Other business leaders, including Elon Musk, have begun talking about a zero-tariff relationship with the European Union, which was presented by the block to the White House before the president’s ’ Liberation Day’ announcement. In other words, it was rejected by the White House; at least for now.

Some billionaires have taken a much more public in their rejection of the tariff policy, with the founder of Fisher Investments, Kenneth Fisher, calling the idea “stupid, wrong, arrogantly extreme, [and] ignorant trade-wise” in a post on X on Monday.

Other backers, including Douglas Leone, the billionaire venture capitalist, have said very little publically, and others like Thomas Peterffy, are pointing to the overvaluation in the market for the current slip in stock prices, not Trump’s tariff policy. Last month, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman said that the imposition of tariffs could be good for the economy.

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