Bill Ackman on why a pause is necessary before Trump's new tariffs kick in

Bill Ackman

Billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman, a strong supporter of American President Donald Trump's new tariff regime said that a pause is required before the tariffs come into complete effect.

Ackman reasones that the practical reality is that there is insufficient time for Trump to make deals before the tariffs are scheduled to take effect.

"I would therefore not be surprised to wake up Monday with an announcement from the President that he was postponing the implementation of the tariffs to give him time to make deals. President Trump has gotten the world’s and our trading partners’ attention and elevated the importance of resolving an unfair tariff regime that has harmed American workers and decimated our industrial base over many decades. This is a critically important issue that needs to be resolved, and we finally have a president committed to getting this done," tweeted the billionaire hedge fund investor

He further said that the years of discriminatory trade arithmateic can’t be resolved in days, so why wouldn’t a pause make sense to give the president time to properly resolve this critical issue and to allow companies large and small the time to prepare for changes in their supply chains?

"The risk of not doing so is that the massive increase in uncertainty drives the economy into a recession, potentially a severe one. One thing is for sure. Monday will be one of the more interesting days in our country’s economic history," read his tweet.

Earlier, Ackman also said that the President was 'at his core a dealmaker who sees the world as a series of transactions". He also lauded Trump as a "tough but fair negotiator" who loved to get things done 'promptly'. “I expect Trump will reward the early dealmakers with fairer deals than those that wait to sit down at the negotiating table. Countries that respond with additional tariffs on our goods will be severely punished. The carrot and the stick writ large, Big Boy style…Just pick up the phone. Call the President, and make a deal,” he wrote on X.