President Donald Trump’s tariff plans caused panic in the stock markets and concerned American households. It also had some of his wealthiest backers speaking out against his policies.
They are likely now breathing a sigh of relief after the president reversed course and announced a pause on the plan.
In his Wednesday post on Truth Social, Trump said the decision to “substantially lower” his levies was due to over 75 countries reaching out to his administration to broker trade deals. The reaction was instantaneous – with markets soaring back to record highs. Prior to that, as the trade war ran on and escalated over the past week, more and more of Trump’s financial allies – even those closest to him – had begun to express concerns, both privately and publicly.
Here’s a look at who his wealthy backers are and what they said about tariffs:
Elon Musk
Even for the self-proclaimed “First Buddy,” who has personally poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of the president and his allies, the tariffs appeared to be too much.
A new report claimed that Elon Musk - who has a net worth of $360 billion - made several personal appeals to Trump to wind back his plans for the tariffs, before Wednesday’s pause, as well as publicly posting on his social media site X about the benefits of international trade cooperation.
He has also blasted White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, the architect of the tariff plans – which later escalated into a public feud.
As the chief executive of electric car manufacturer Tesla, Musk has opposed tariffs for years and during Trump’s first term, Tesla filed a lawsuit in a bid to overturn the tax on imports from China.
On Saturday, Musk also expressed hope that America and Europe could move to “a zero tariff situation” effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and the United States.”
Bill Ackman
The billionaire fund manager, who endorsed Donald Trump's run for president, was one of the most public with his pleas for Washington to hit pause on tariffs, arguing that they would cause "a major global economic disruption."
While tariffs are essential for eliminating "unfair trading practices" by partners, implementing them without allowing time for agreements will do "unnecessary harm," he said in a post on X.
In a Sunday post, Ackman - who has a net worth of $8.8 billion - suggested that a 90-day pause could be used to “resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals, and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country.”
Not doing so, he said, would result in “economic nuclear war on every country in the world” and damage the reputation of the U.S. in a way that would take decades to mend.
Jamie Dimon
Despite initially supporting Trump’s tariffs, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned on Wednesday that a recession was a “likely outcome” of the trade war, despite previously telling those worried about tariffs and inflation to “get over it.”
On Wednesday, Dimon warned that “sticky inflation” isn’t going away anytime soon while urging the administration to begin negotiating new trade deals with other countries “quickly.”
The man worth more than $2 billion insisted that he was “taking a calm view” of the situation. “Let them settle down, take a deep breath, negotiate some trade deals,” he said. “That’s the best thing they can do.”
Ken Fisher
On Monday, billionaire Ken Fisher, the founder and executive chairman of Fisher Investments, described Trump’s tariffs as “stupid, wrong, arrogantly extreme, ignorant trade-wise and addressing a non-problem with misguided tools.
“Yet, as near as I can tell it will fade and fail and the fear is bigger than the problem, which from here is bullish.” Fisher said that while he normally would not comment publicly on presidential actions, that “on tariffs Trump is beyond the pale by a long shot.”
