MAGA Billionaire Bill Ackman scrambled to cozy up to President Donald Trump again after the president’s announcement of a 90-day tariff pause Wednesday, eager to make amends for his recent criticism.
“This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump. Textbook, Art of the Deal,” the hedge fund manager posted on X Wednesday.
Ackman previously called the tariff strategy a “mistake” that could lead the U.S. to the brink of an “economic nuclear winter.” But the former Democratic Party donor-turned-MAGA hype man seems to have changed his thoughts on the way Trump handled the rollout.
“The benefit of @realDonaldTrump’s approach is that we now understand who are our preferred trading partners, and who the problems are,” he told the president in a separate X post.
This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump. Textbook, Art of the Deal.
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) April 9, 2025
“China has shown themselves to be a bad actor. Our counterparties also have a taste of what life is like if they don’t take down their trade barriers. This is the perfect setup for trade negotiations over the next 90 days.”
Trump announced Wednesday that he would pause his chaotic tariff rollout for 90 days—excluding those aimed at China—after days of market turmoil that wiped out trillions of dollars and rattled his billionaire backers, including Ackman.
Ackman was among a chorus of billionaires begging for a tariff timeout over the weekend, urging “cooler heads” to prevail in the Trump administration.
He made his frustration known by lashing out at billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of the architects behind the trade policy, calling him “indifferent” to the chaos affecting everyday Americans.
“President @realDonaldTrump is not an economist and therefore relies on his advisors to do these calculations so he can determine policy. The global economy is being taken down because of bad math,” Ackman wrote Monday.
Lutnick, for his part, tried to claim credit for the tariff pause and distance himself from the disastrous plan he’d spent weeks cheerleading in countless TV appearances and meetings with business leaders in an X post Wednesday.
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