{"id":49166,"date":"2025-04-07T10:19:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T15:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/?p=49166"},"modified":"2025-04-07T10:19:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T15:19:52","slug":"trumps-tariff-tantrum-ackman-throws-a-billionaire-sized-wrench-in-the-maga-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/trumps-tariff-tantrum-ackman-throws-a-billionaire-sized-wrench-in-the-maga-machine\/49166\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Tariff Tantrum: Ackman Throws a Billionaire-Sized Wrench in the MAGA Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, Donald Trump<\/a>, you golden-haired chaos agent, what have you done now? Just when we thought your economic playbook couldn\u2019t get any dumber than slapping \u201cMade in \u2018Merica\u201d on everything and calling it a win, here comes Bill Ackman\u2014hedge fund hotshot and occasional Trump<\/a> cheerleader\u2014ready to rain on your tariff parade. In a glorious twist of irony, the billionaire who once sang your praises is now clutching his pearls, warning that your latest tariff obsession is about to tank the economy faster than you can say \u201cArt of the Deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ackman took to X\u2014because where else do rich guys air their grievances these days?\u2014and dropped a bombshell that\u2019s got the MAGA crowd sweating through their red hats. \u201cBusiness investment will grind to a halt, (and) consumers will close their wallets,\u201d he tweeted, painting a picture of a tariff-triggered apocalypse that even the most die-hard Trump stan can\u2019t ignore. And why? Because your grand plan to slap new levies on anything that dares cross the border might just turn the U.S. into an economic pariah. \u201cWe will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate,\u201d Ackman added, basically saying, \u201cDonald, you\u2019re about to make us the kid no one wants to trade Pok\u00e9mon cards with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break this down for the folks still chanting \u201cTariffs = Jobs!\u201d at the back of the rally. Ackman\u2019s not wrong\u2014businesses don\u2019t exactly love sinking billions into a country that\u2019s playing economic Russian roulette. CEOs aren\u2019t sitting around boardrooms thinking, \u201cYou know what sounds fun? Committing to a massive factory build while Trump\u2019s out here starting a trade war with everyone from Canada to China.\u201d And consumers? They\u2019re not going to be thrilled when their Walmart cart suddenly costs double because you decided to \u201cprotect\u201d them from cheap foreign socks. Close their wallets? Hell, they\u2019ll weld them shut.<\/p>\n

Ackman\u2019s solution? A 90-day pause on this tariff madness. A timeout, if you will, so the grown-ups can figure out how to stop the bleeding before your \u201cwinning\u201d strategy turns into an \u201ceconomic nuclear winter\u201d\u2014his words, not mine, but damn if they don\u2019t hit the mark. It\u2019s almost cute how he thinks you\u2019ll listen, though. You, the guy who once bragged about never reading books, taking advice from a Wall Street brainiac? Pass the popcorn.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the kicker: Ackman\u2019s not some bleeding-heart liberal trying to sabotage your legacy. This is a guy who\u2019s been in your corner before, riding the Trump train when it suited him. So when *he\u2019s* jumping ship, you know the water\u2019s getting choppy. Maybe it\u2019s time to admit that tariffs aren\u2019t the magic wand you think they are, Don. They\u2019re not going to bring back the Rust Belt or make America the king of steel again\u2014they\u2019re just going to jack up prices, piss off our allies, and leave us holding the bag when the rest of the world decides they\u2019d rather trade with someone less unhinged.<\/p>\n

But sure, keep tweeting about how you\u2019re the greatest negotiator since sliced bread. Meanwhile, Ackman\u2019s over here sounding the alarm while your base cheers for a policy that\u2019s about to hit them square in the bank account. A 90-day pause might not fix everything, but it\u2019s a start\u2014unless, of course, you\u2019re too busy golfing at Mar-a-Lago to notice the economy\u2019s about to do a faceplant. Your move, Tariff Man. Don\u2019t screw it up worse than you already have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, Donald Trump, you golden-haired chaos agent, what have you done now? Just when we thought your economic playbook couldn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":49167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}