Citadel founder Ken Griffin knocked the Trump administration for a series of moves he said would undoubtedly cause stagflation.
Griffin, who’s notably criticized the president’s trade policies, slammed the White House for promoting tax reductions amidst a fiscal deficit.
“It would be a textbook stagflation scenario. The question is, is it for several quarters, or does it become for several years?” he asked during remarks at Forbes Iconoclast Summit on Thursday.
Griffin voted for Trump in 2024, but has vocalized apprehensions on the slated impact of tariffs alongside other billionaires and business owners.
“The question is, is the shock from the tariff policies one time in nature, or will the scramble to build manufacturing America put us into a wage growth spiral for years to come,” the hedge fund CEO asked.
“That we don’t know the answer to, but that is a real risk in the current environment,” he continued.
Griffin said he and others remain leery over Trump’s push to increase manufacturing in the U.S., an effort the CEO said would bolster low paying jobs without a return on investment.
“There’s no money in it for anybody, and there’s certainly no money for people who are doing those jobs,” he told the audience.
“So I don’t understand for the life of me why we aspire to bring back to the United States jobs that are actually moving out of China into lower cost jurisdictions. Why?” he added. “Why are we aspiring to be the nation of the lowest cost and lowest paid workforce in the world? That makes no sense to me.”
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