Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is speaking out President Trump’s sweeping tariffs, cautioning the levies could lead to higher inflation and slow the U.S. economy. Other Wall Street leaders are also starting to express tariff-related concerns, including billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.
While many corporate leaders have been notably silent around Mr. Trump’s trade policies, Wall Street executives this week spoke critically of the Trump administration’s range of tariffs, some of which went into effect over the weekend, following the loss of trillions of value in last week’s stock market rout.
In his annual letter to shareholders Monday, Dimon warned that Mr. Trump’s “tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession.” Dimon’s remarks come after he said in January that Americans should “get over” concerns about the effects of tariffs.
Dimon, who heads the largest U.S. bank, added in his shareholder letter that while the economy is weakening, stock market “prices remain relatively high.” While Dimon did not criticize Mr. Trump directly, he noted that the tariffs would have “short-term effects” including anticipated higher prices on both domestic and imported goods.
Such conditions could lead to what’s known as stagflation — a mashup of “stagnation” and “inflation” — which describes economic periods when growth slows even as prices remain painfully high. Inflation typically eases when the economy contracts.
“Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth,” Dimon said.
He said potential retaliatory actions by other nations are weighing on confidence, and said unequivocally that the “quicker this issue is resolved, the better because some of the negative effects increase cumulatively over time and would be hard to reverse.”
“Economic nuclear war”
A chorus of other high-profile Wall Street executives echoed Dimon’s remarks, with some sharply criticizing the White House’s recent tariff actions. Many corporate leaders have thus far been reluctant to openly criticize the Trump Administration’s agenda.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square, said on X Sunday that “by placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, 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 that the reciprocal tariffs slated to go into effect on dozens of countries April 9 would be tantamount launching “economic nuclear war on every country in the world.”
As a result, “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 said.
He took aim at Mr. Trump directly, saying “The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe” and that if he doesn’t pause the tariffs from going into effect, the U.S. is headed for a “self-induced, economic nuclear winter.”
Tariff “errors”
Other prominent investors that are chiming in include billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, founder of Duquesne Family Office, who wrote in a social media post, “I do not support tariffs exceeding 10%.”
And hedge fund manager Dan Loeb, CEO of Third Point, on X posted an American Enterprise Institute analysis of Mr. Trump’s tariff formula, which he said highlighted its “conceptual as well as practical errors.”
“It will be a test of the administration’s judgment versus ideology how they resolve this over the weekend or coming days,” Loeb wrote.
