Hedge fund titan Ken Griffin said he is concerned about Donald Trump’s potential tariff policies, but that the U.S. economy is now getting back to the “business of business” as he returns to the White House.
Speaking at the Oxford Union in Britain on Monday, the Citadel founder called tariffs — a central tenet of Trump’s economic agenda — a “long, slippery slope” that could be profitable in the short term but global. But it could harm the ability of American companies to compete. in the long run.
“I’m very concerned about the president’s willingness to engage in tariffs in terms of trade policy,” Griffin said.
Instead of dealing with “regulatory overreach,” Griffin said, American businesses will “return” to creating jobs and growing their businesses and the economy over the next four years.
Earlier this year, Griffin called Trump’s tariff policies “deplorable,” but said he thought a Trump administration would be good for markets.
In a wide-ranging debate on Monday that touched on politics, investment and immigration, among other topics, the 56-year-old billionaire also said he thinks governments continue to spend more than they can and he hopes That the Trump administration will withdraw that scope. of government.
Griffin has been increasingly vocal about his views on American political issues, promoting a low-tax, free-market agenda and lambasting Democrats as too soft on crime. He has also been a vocal critic of pro-Palestinian protests on elite US college campuses, calling the protests a product of a “failed education system”.
Griffin, who last month predicted at Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative that Trump would win the election, has donated more than $100 million to pro-Republican political action committees this presidency, according to campaign finance tracker Open Secrets. According to
Many big-ticket donors flocked to Trump late in the campaign, putting aside concerns about his policies, personality and legal troubles. Griffin was among prominent Wall Street billionaires who either supported other candidates or openly opposed the former president’s nomination path. Trump’s billionaire support only began to accumulate in March, when he became the Republican nominee.
Immigration Protections
In his Monday remarks, Griffin also expressed concern over Trump’s pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, saying the administration needs to arrive at a more substantive immigration policy.
“I don’t know how to do it on humanitarian grounds or as an economic justification,” Griffin said of mass deportations. He said that when “people who come to our country who are gainfully employed, who are contributing to our economy” and trying to establish roots in America, “I don’t understand. “How can the government deport these people,” he said. .
“I think we need to be more thoughtful about immigration policy than deporting millions of Americans,” he said.
Griffin, who started Citadel in 1990, has since built the firm into a $65 billion powerhouse and now has a personal fortune of about $42.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Multi-strategy hedge funds like Citadel rely on teams of traders to make bets across asset classes and deliver steady returns with little tolerance for losses. The growing demand for such products has led to an unprecedented bidding war for talent in the industry.
When asked about his single best investment, Griffin goes back to the one that has made his firm the world’s most profitable hedge fund.
“The best investment I ever made” is investing in people. “Nothing else comes close,” he said. “You get someone who’s really bright, really driven and creative, and you get behind them 110 percent. Nothing beats that investment.”
