Bill Ackman calls for 90-day 'time out' on tariffs, or risk 'self-induced, economic nuclear winter'

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman called for a 90-day "time-out" on President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs, warning of the United States bringing forth a "self-induced, economic nuclear winter." 

In a lengthy X post on Sunday, the billionaire founder of Pershing Square hedge fund management argued that the U.S. "is 100% behind the president on fixing a global system of tariffs that has disadvantaged the country," but stressed that business "is a confidence game and confidence depends on trust." 

Ackman, who backed the Republican presidential candidate in July 2024 after previously supporting the Democratic Party, acknowledged that Trump "has elevated the tariff issue to the most important geopolitical issue in the world, and he has gotten everyone’s attention." 

"So far, so good. And yes, other nations have taken advantage of the U.S. by protecting their home industries at the expense of millions of our jobs and economic growth in our country," Ackman wrote. "But, by placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital."

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Ackman said that Trump "has an opportunity to call a 90-day time out, negotiate and resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals, and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country." 

If not, Ackman said, the United States on April 9 will "launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world," and "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."

The markets in Europe and Asia continued to plunge on Monday after Trump urged Americans to "hang tough" on his reciprocal tariffs plan that sent Wall Street into a frenzy last week. The White House has promised to levy higher customs tariffs on about 60 nations considered the "worst offenders" on Wednesday, April 9. 

In a new Truth Social post on Monday morning, Trump said that "oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place." 

"This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate," Trump wrote. "They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA! Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country."

Ackman, meanwhile, said he did not know of one CEO or board of directors who would be comfortable making "large, long-term, economic commitments in our country in the middle of an economic nuclear war." When markets crash, he said, "new investment stops, consumers stop spending money, and businesses have no choice but to curtail investment and fire workers." 

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Ackman said small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs would experience "much greater pain" than larger companies. "Almost no business can pass through an overnight massive increase in costs to their customers," he wrote. "And that’s true even if they have no debt, and, unfortunately, there is a massive amount of leverage in the system."

"Business is a confidence game. The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe," Ackman continued. "The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president — in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress — are going to be severely negative." 

"This is not what we voted for," he said. "The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system. Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down. May cooler heads prevail."

Ackman also offered a reason why he said he believes Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick "is indifferent to the stock market and the economy crashing." 

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"He and Cantor are long bonds. He profits when our economy implodes," the famous hedge fund manager wrote on X. "It’s a bad idea to pick a Secretary of Commerce whose firm is levered long fixed income. It’s an irreconcilable conflict of interest."