Citadel CEO Ken Griffin sent a stern warning against the negative impact from President Donald Trump’s combative approach to U.S. trade policy.
“From my vantage point, the bombastic rhetoric, the damage has already been done,” Griffin said Tuesday at the UBS Financial Services Conference in Key Biscayne, Florida. “It’s a huge mistake to resort to this form of rhetoric when you’re trying to drive a bargain because … it tears into the minds of CEOs, policymakers that we can’t depend upon America, as our trading partner.”
The billionaire hedge fund founder’s comments came after Trump on Monday evening signed an order that would impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The president has already enacted a 10% duty on all Chinese imports, while pausing his 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada temporarily.
Also, Ken Griffin:
Griffin’s largest disclosed donations were to the Senate Leadership Fund, on four separate occasions, totaling $30 million. He also made donations totaling $15 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, $15 million to the Keystone Renewal PAC and $10 million to Maryland’s Future, a single-candidate super political action committee in support of Republican Larry Hogan for the US Senate.
It’s worth noting that Griffin’s contribution of $30 million to the Senate Leadership Fund was more than one-quarter (25.8 percent) of its total raised ($116.5 million), the second-largest amount raised by an outside spending organization and the largest focused on electing conservatives in the 2024 US federal election.