Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, who backed Donald Trump during his run for the White House, has sharply criticised his sweeping new tariff plan. He said that the advisor who proposed the idea of imposing tariffs on roughly 60 countries should be “fired”. Ackman added that Trump should call a 90-day timeout as tariffs could lead to an “economic nuclear winter”.  

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Ackman said, “It does not help our country’s and our president’s negotiating position to be trying to strike deals while our market is collapsing,” adding that “Whoever is recommending that idea to President Donald Trump should be fired now”. 

Ackman, in a separate post, expressed that Americans are supporting Trump for trying to fix a flawed global system of tariffs but “launching a global economic war against” against friends and foes alike may “destroy confidence in the country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital”. 

He urged Trump to place a pause on the trade war and resolve the issues by negotiation. 

“If…on April 9th, we launch an 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 waned. 

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The 58-year-old also said that no investor would want to pour money into a country that is undergoing “economic nuclear war”. In his words, America is “heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter”, suggesting that people should “start hunkering down”. 

The founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management clarified that his stance on tariffs is not driven by personal financial interests: “Neither I nor Pershing Square have any margin leverage or any other instrument or arrangement which will create liquidity issues for me or the funds we manage if the market crashes. None. We don’t use margin. Never have. Never will.”

He said his Pershing Square holds three-year call options on Nike, their only investment directly hit by tariffs.  

Ackman added that business runs on confidence and President Trump is losing the “confidence of business leaders around the globe”.

“And it is not just the big companies that will suffer. Small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs will experience much greater pain,” he wrote on X. 

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Ackman’s warning came after Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs last week on almost every American trading partner. The move triggered Wall Street’s worst week since the COVID-19 pandemic, with Bloomberg reporting a sharp drop in the collective wealth of the world’s top five billionaires.

The new tariffs will be imposed on a country-by-country basis. China faces the highest levy at 34%, followed by the European Union at 20%. India will see a 26% tariff on its exports to the US, while Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan will be hit with 32%, 24%, and 26% tariffs, respectively. A base tariff of 10% will apply to all nations, Trump announced.

“Some day people will realise that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!” Trump wrote on Truth Social as he remains defiant on the tariff plan roiling international markets.