President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced via a social media post a planned 90-day pause in his aggressive tariff plan against some countries, sending ripples through the business community.
The market, which had plummeted following news of the president’s trade strategy, surged in response to the planned pause, while industry leaders from across the political spectrum gave their initial reactions.
Bill Ackman
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, in a post on X, wrote, “This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump. Textbook, Art of the Deal.”
Ackman had previously advocated for a pause in the tariffs’ implementation “to enable negotiations to be completed without a major global economic disruption that will harm the most vulnerable companies and citizens of our country.”
“The benefit of @realDonaldTrump ‘s approach is that we now understand who are our preferred trading partners, and who the problems are,” Ackman said in a separate post following the announcement of the pause. “China has shown themselves to be a bad actor. Our counterparties also have a taste of what life is like if they don’t take down their trade barriers. This is the perfect setup for trade negotiations over the next 90 days.”
Ackman continued: “Advice for China: Pick up the phone and call the President. He is a tough but fair negotiator. The longer China holds out and retaliates, the worse the outcome for China.”
Elon Musk
Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym for Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus, posted a hypothetical statement on X which read, “The next 4 years are gonna be an insane roller coaster, aren’t they?” Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied simply with a “100” emoji.
Related stories
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
David Sacks
PayPal and Yammer cofounder David Sacks posted on X to declare Trump’s reversal on tariffs a massive victory for the president.
“They did everything they could to create a panic,” Sacks wrote. “They predicted a Black Monday that never came. They became jubilant over an intraday correction on Tuesday. They were rooting for Trump to fail even if it meant the market and economy crashed.”
The tech founder and investor continued: “Fortunately their hopes have been dashed. Trump has been vindicated. China is isolated, and the rest of the world is lining up to negotiate new trade deals. Do you think this would have happened if Trump had asked nicely? Maybe if he had said pretty please? Never. This was the only way to rewrite the rules of global trade. Once again, Trump was right about everything!”
Diane Swonk
Diane Swonk, the chief economist of the professional services firm KPMG, wrote in a series of posts on X that, despite the news of the implementation pause, the country has “not escaped the tariff problems.”
“The effective tariff rate is actually HIGHER with the pause than it was as announced on April 2, due to the tariffs on China,” Swonk wrote. “There will be some diversion through connector countries. However, the effective tariff rate now peaks at 30.5% during the pause. That is worse than our worst case scenarios.”
She added: “The tariff pause is a moving target and it given the high level of tariffs on China and 10% across the board plus potentially more in the pipeline, takes the effective tariff rate to a RECORD. The market must be hoping told all goes away.”
Spencer Hakimian
The founder of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management was not too pleased with the recent back-and-forth over Trump’s tariffs, writing in a series of posts on X that we’re now “back to square one” after Trump’s latest reversal.
“Nothing accomplished. Nothing changed. But somehow we won. Nice,” Hakimian wrote.
In a separate post, Hakimian lamented the lack of clarity in Trump’s tariff strategy, regardless of the economic outcome.
“Even if you support all of the past week. From the escalation to the walk back, although that’s inherently contradictory to support both. Everyone admits that the rollout & rollback of all of this has been needlessly sloppy and unclear, correct? Or is that also some voodoo 8D chess strategy too?”
Chris Fralic
Chris Fralic, a partner at the venture capital firm First Round Capital, posted on X a screenshot of the tickers of several surging stocks, writing it’s, “Good to be liberated from Liberation Day.”
“If your portfolio drops by X% and then rises by X%, you’ll still be below your starting point,” Fralic wrote in a separate post. “The bigger the drop, the more pronounced this effect becomes. A 20% drop followed by a 20% rise leaves you at 96% of your original value.”
Mark Cuban
Over on Bluesky, the X alternative social media site, Cost Plus Drugs cofounder and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban re-posted a statement from economist Paulo dos Santos, which described Trump’s tariffs as “the Ivermectin of economic strategy,” referencing the anti-parasitic drug used by some to treat COVID-19 infections, despite reservations from the medical community.
In a separate post made just before Trump announced the tariff pause, Cuban wrote: “What some people aren’t factoring into their analysis is the reality that companies were buying tons of inventory to beat the tariffs. That’s cash taken from being able to invest or hire. In fact the probably cut costs and jobs as a result.”
