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One enduring theme of President Donald Trump’s second term so far has been the CEOs, institutions, and name brands that have chosen to flatter the commander in chief instead of criticize him.
A rare outlier: Ken Griffin.
The billionaire hedge fund founder coauthored an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, deriding Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve’s independence. The piece offered full-throated support for a Fed “free of undue interference from the executive branch,” an important signal from the investing world to the White House.
His op-ed also hits on several well-known themes to those who follow the Miami-based billionaire, namely, the need for the US to cut its government spending. Griffin, a GOP megadonor who voted for Trump and praised the work of Elon Musk’s DOGE, has been critical of the administration’s stance on tariffs and immigration.
Business Insider recently reported that Griffin, who founded Citadel and marketmaker Citadel Securities, is focused on “policies and principles” when he speaks publicly or donates to campaigns or causes. While his political giving has gone exclusively to Republican candidates recently, he notably did not back Trump’s reelection campaign.
While it was popular during Trump’s first term for companies to reiterate their commitments to diversity or extol the benefits of immigration, this time around CEOs like Apple’s Tim Cook have gone out of their way to thank Trump, and big-name law firms and media organizations have chosen to settle legal battles and pay up instead of fighting.
Trump has pushed for Fed chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates for months, and this weekend, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed poor economic figures on Powell’s reluctance to cut borrowing costs. Trump also fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a disappointing jobs report, which has raised questions over the trustworthiness of government data.
But the world’s most important central bank needs to be allowed to pursue its dual mandate, Griffin wrote, of “safeguarding employment” and bringing inflation down 2%. “History shows the danger,” if Trump forces the bank to throw away part of this mandate, Griffin wrote with University of Chicago professor Anil Kashyap.
“In the 1970s, the White House pressured the Fed to keep interest rates artificially low,” the authors warned.
“The central bank’s reluctance to tighten policy as inflation accelerated contributed to a prolonged surge in prices, regarded as one of the Fed’s greatest failures.”
Other executives, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, have spoken about the importance of an independent Fed without directly calling out the White House. Griffin, whose political stature is as high as it’s ever been, has been one of the few business leaders to go a step further and criticize Trump for his interventions.
“Together, these developments highlight risks that recall experiences in emerging markets where political influence eroded institutional credibility. While the US benefits from a large stock of credibility accumulated over decades, it isn’t limitless.”
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