Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, Money, Business
Not everyone is on board with President Trump's 'reciprocal tariff' plan, including one billionaire ally who is warning the world could be thrown into an economic turmoil.
Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager and staunch Trump ally, is warning the US could damage its reputation with trading partners and spark an 'economic nuclear winter' around the world as he begs the president to halt the tariffs plan.
On April 2, dubbed by Donald Trump as 'Liberation Day,' the POTUS announced as many as 60 countries would be hit with a baseline of at least 10 percent on foreign imported goods, which came into effect over the weekend.
Others have been hit with even higher levies, including the EU (20 percent), China (54 percent), Japan (24 percent) and Thailand (36 percent), which will come into effect on April 9.
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Speaking outside the White House, Trump said: "For decades our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered from nations, near and far, from both friend and foe alike. It's our declaration of economic independence."
However, aggravated by the continuing downward trajectory amid the stock market, economists and financial advisors are warning the move could harm American citizens, from their grocery bills to cars and even their pensions.
Now, 58-year-old New York investor Bill Ackman, who has an estimated net worth of around $8.9 billion according to Forbes, is the latest to weigh in on the warnings.
The Perishing Square Capital Management CEO took to Twitter to say that while most people are '100 percent' behind the president when it comes to levelling out the playing field, the move risks inflicting irreparable damage to the world's confidence in the country in business terms.
Ackman said placing 'massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike' is simply 'launching a global economic war against the whole world at once.'
He continued: "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."
Ackman said the president now has an 'opportunity to call a 90-day time out' to '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," he added, before going on to say CEOs and directors would not be 'comfortable' making large, long-term commitments with the country.
He warned further that both big and small businesses would 'suffer' with 'great pain,' adding: "Almost no business can pass through an overnight massive increase in costs to their customers."
"The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe," he said. "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," he concluded.
The warning comes as 'Black Monday' started trending on social media, in reference to the global stock market crash of 1987 after stocks tumbled on Sunday night and suffered a two-day wipeout in stock market history on Thursday and Friday last week where $6.6 trillion was wiped.
