Billionaire investor Ken Griffin said President Trump’s trade war was “deadlined to a pointless place,” as the market sees in response to the latest signal from the White House.
Citadel founder and CEO Griffin told Semafor’s World Economic Summit on Wednesday that he is looking forward to some of Trump’s agenda, including the need to navigate new regulations. Bloomberg reported.
“Unfortunately, a trade war left to a pointless place means that we spend time thinking about the supply chain,” Griffin said.
Griffin has criticized Trump in the past, but during the events, he said that efforts to crack down on immigrants and reduce unnecessary government spending were good. He said Trump’s tariff moves were also intended.
“President Trump has a very good sense of where the problem lies,” Griffin said. “But we’re moving too quickly, we’re moving too by accident. We’re breaking a lot of glass when we try to solve a very realistic problem.”
The US stock market has fluctuated wildly in recent weeks amid Trump’s tariff rollout.
Markets closed on Tuesday with strong profits as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly foresaw investors “elimination” of US-China trade tensions.
On Wednesday, Bescent said he had an opportunity to do business with China. This is another signal that the administration is easing its stance on trade with the country. Trump also said tariffs on China will fall from the current 145% on many products.
Griffin warned that Trump was “putting American brands at risk” to the trade war, and that it could counterproductively affect the administration’s goal of bringing manufacturing back to the US.
“People are not going to compete to build manufacturing in America,” he said. “Policy volatility will actually undermine the very goals you are trying to achieve.”
Republican lawmakers are worried that the trade war will hurt them in the 2026 election, as Trump and his top officials have expressed confidence in negotiating with other countries.
GOP leaders are worried that price inflation could ultimately hurt them in the ballot box, just as they did during the 1932 and 1982 trade wars.
