On Wednesday, President Donald Trump shared a social media post announcing a planned 90-day suspension of his aggressive tariff strategy targeting certain countries, creating waves in the business world.
The market, which had sharply declined following the revelation of the president’s trade tactics, experienced a resurgence in response to the announced pause. Business leaders from various political perspectives quickly voiced their opinions.
Bill Ackman
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman expressed in a post on X, “This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump. Textbook, Art of the Deal.”
Ackman had previously argued that a tariff pause was necessary “to allow negotiations to finish without causing significant global economic disruption that would adversely affect the most vulnerable businesses and citizens of our country.”
“The advantage of @realDonaldTrump’s approach is that we now know who our preferred trading partners are, and who poses challenges,” Ackman added in another post after the pause announcement. “China has proved to be untrustworthy. Our counterparts now have a glimpse of what life could be like if they fail to reduce their trade barriers. This is an ideal setup for trade negotiations in the next 90 days.”
Ackman advised: “China should pick up the phone and contact the President. He is a tough but equitable negotiator. The longer China delays and retaliates, the more detrimental the outcome will be for them.”
Elon Musk
Shibetoshi Nakamoto, known as Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus, tweeted a hypothetical remark, “The next 4 years are gonna be an insane roller coaster, aren’t they?” To which Tesla CEO Elon Musk simply replied with a “100” emoji.
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David Sacks
PayPal and Yammer co-founder David Sacks took to X to declare Trump’s tariff reversal a significant victory for the president.
“They attempted everything to incite panic,” Sacks commented. “They forecasted a Black Monday that never occurred. They celebrated an intraday correction on Tuesday and hoped for Trump’s failure, even at the expense of the market and the economy.”
“Fortunately, their expectations have been thwarted. Trump has emerged successful. China is isolated, and the global community is gearing up to renegotiate trade agreements. Do you think this would have transpired if Trump had been polite? Maybe if he had requested nicely? No. This was the only way to reshape the global trade rules. Once again, Trump was right about everything!”
Diane Swonk
Diane Swonk, KPMG’s chief economist, conveyed in a series of posts on X that despite the announcement of the tariff pause, the nation “has not evaded the tariff issues.”
“The effective tariff rate is, in fact, HIGHER during the pause than it was when announced on April 2, due to the tariffs on China,” Swonk noted. “There may be some diversion through intermediary countries. However, the current effective tariff rate reaches a peak of 30.5% during the pause, which is worse than our most pessimistic projections.”
She continued: “The tariff pause is a fluctuating target. Given the elevated tariffs on China and a baseline of 10% along with more potentially on the horizon, the effective tariff rate reaches a RECORD high. The market must be hoping all of this will vanish.”
Spencer Hakimian
The founder of Tolou Capital Management expressed dissatisfaction regarding the ongoing discussions about Trump’s tariffs, stating in a series of posts on X that we’re effectively “back to square one” following Trump’s latest move.
“Nothing was achieved. Nothing has changed. But somehow, we’ve won. Great,” Hakimian expressed.
In another post, Hakimian criticized the ambiguity surrounding Trump’s tariff tactics, no matter the economic effects.
“Even if you support all that happened this past week – from the escalation to the rollback – though it’s contradictory to support both. Everyone recognizes that the execution and reversal of these policies have been unnecessarily chaotic and unclear, right? Or is that another instance of some mysterious 8D chess strategy?”
Chris Fralic
Chris Fralic, a partner at First Round Capital, shared a screenshot of several climbing stock tickers on X, commenting, “Good to be liberated from Liberation Day.”
“If your portfolio drops by X% and then rebounds by X%, you’ll still be below your starting point,” Fralic explained in another post. “The more significant the drop, the more pronounced this effect. A 20% fall followed by a 20% rise leaves you at 96% of your original value.”
Mark Cuban
On Bluesky, an alternative to X, Cost Plus Drugs co-founder and “Shark Tank” personality Mark Cuban shared an economist Paulo dos Santos’s remark characterizing Trump’s tariffs as “the Ivermectin of economic strategy,” making a reference to the antiparasitic medication some used to treat COVID-19 despite skepticism from the medical community.
In a separate post just before Trump revealed the tariff pause, Cuban noted: “What many people overlook in their analysis is that companies were stockpiling significant amounts of inventory to circumvent the tariffs. That’s cash that could have been utilized for investments or hiring. It likely led to cost reductions and job cuts as a result.”
