Trump ally Bill Ackman has warned that the world is on the brink of an ‘economic nuclear winter’ as he begged the president to hit pause on his reciprocal tariffs.
The president’s 10 percent ‘baseline’ tariff began Saturday, hitting all US imports except goods from Mexico and Canada. Further tariffs on goods from 57 trading partners, including European Union, come into effect April 9.
Asian and European markets plunged on opening Monday, with Germany’s Dax down a staggering 10 per cent and the STOXX 600 slumping 5.8 per cent. The UK’s FTSE 100 tanked to its lowest level in a year.
‘Black Monday’ started trending on X – a reference to the global and severe stock market crash of 1987, as uncertainly grows before the US markets open at 9.30am EST Monday.
Trump’s seismic moves have caused some of America’s brightest business minds to lose their confidence in him, including Pershing Square Capital Management’s CEO, Ackman.
Experts say the signs of a serious crash are there, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow — the three main U.S. stock market indices — on course to open Monday morning down by as much as 6 percent.
Already in early morning trading in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei cratered as much as 8 percent since Friday, while ‘s market was down 6 percent, South Korea’s was down 5 percent, Taiwan almost 10 percent, Singapore 8.5 percent, Hong Kong 10 percent and China almost 5 percent.
Over the past six months, the S&P/ASX 200 was also down nearly 13 percent.
It followed the worst two-day wipeout in US stock market history on Thursday and Friday — with $6.6 trillion wiped off the value companies, which analysts say may just be the beginning.
Yet Trump has largely shrugged off the economic downfall, telling reporters on Sunday that even though world leaders have been reaching out to him to negotiate trade deals he has brushed off their requests and defiantly continued on with his plans.
Ackman, however, saw things differently – warning that Trump’s current trajectory could devastate businesses around the world.
President Donald Trump has defended his reciprocal tariffs amid fears of a global economic downturn
Bill Ackman warned that Trump’s current trajectory could devastate businesses around the world
‘The country is 100 percent behind the president on fixing a global system of tariffs that has disadvantaged the country. But business is a confidence game and confidence depends on trust,’ he wrote.
‘By placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business and as a market to invest capital.’
He then said Trump ‘has an opportunity to call a 90-day timeout, negotiate and resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country.
‘If, on the other hand, on April 9th, we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate.
‘When markets crash, new investment stops, consumers stop spending money and businesses have no choice but to curtail investment and fire workers,’ Ackman explained.
‘And it’s not just the big companies that will suffer,’ he warned. ‘Small and medium-size businesses and entrepreneurs will experience much greater pain.
‘Almost no businesses can pass through an overnight massive increase in cost to their customers. And that’s true even if they have no debt and unfortunately, there is a massive amount of leverage in the system.’
A man points at a screen displaying average stock prices at the Bank of Taiwan Securities in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 7, 2025
The S&P 500 was trending down more than 14 percent over the past six months before trading opened on Monday
The billionaire went on to call business a ‘confidence game,’ saying Trump ‘is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe.
‘The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president – in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress – are going to be severely negative.
‘This is not what we voted for,’ Ackman declared as he asked Trump to take action.
‘The president has an opportunity on Monday to call a timeout and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system.
‘Alternatively, we are headed for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter and we should start hunkering down.
‘May cooler heads prevail,’ he said.
In a follow-up post, Ackman said he has ‘a lot of respect for our president and what he has accomplished so far, but I don’t think he is infallible, which is why I am stating loud and clear that I strongly believe launching tariffs on April 9 against the entire world – massively in excess of what we are being charged – is a mistake.
‘The right answer in my view is a 90-day pause to give the president time to carefully and strategically resolve our historically unfair global trading position.’
A currency dealer works as an electronic board shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and South Korean won, at a dealing room of a bank in the early morning hours of Monday
The KOSPI was down nearly 11 percent over the course of six months as it opened on Monday
Japan’s Nikkei slumped as much as 20 percent in trading on Monday morning in Asia, which is Sunday night in the US
‘s SPX 200 was down 6 percent when it opened on Monday morning
Ackman also hit out at Trump’s pick for the Secretary of Commerce, whom he claimed is investing in long-bonds.
‘He profits when our economy implodes,’ said Ackman, who has an estimated net worth of $9.1 billion.
‘It’s a bad idea to pic a Secretary of Commerce whose firm is levered long fixed income,’ he said. ‘It’s an irreconcilable conflict of interest.’
But Trump has denied he was intentionally engineering a market selloff and insisted he could not foresee market reactions, saying he would not make a deal with other countries unless trade deficits were solved.
‘They’re dying to make a deal,’ the president claimed as he revealed his conditions for any trade negotiations.
‘But I said we’re not going to have deficits with your country. We’re not going to do that because, to me, a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses, or we’re, at worst, going to be breaking even.’
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading
On Saturday, CNBC host and market analyst Jim Cramer predicted that the US could be barreling toward another Black Monday.
The 1987 crash — a 22.6 percent drop in a single day — remains the worst in modern market history, far eclipsing the chaos of 2008 or even the Covid crash.
‘If the president doesn’t reach out and reward countries and companies that follow the rules, then the 1987 scenario… where we dropped for three days and then plunged 22 percent on Monday, becomes highly relevant,’ Cramer said.
At the same time, Trump’s top economic advisors downplayed the effects of the tariffs on weekend news programs, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying on NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ that there was ‘no reason’ to anticipate a recession.
Some analysts agree, believing that the markets may make a short-term bounce.
‘Sometime this week it´s probably inevitable that we will have an up day,’ said Steve Sosnick, chief investment strategist at Interactive Brokers.
Trump has denied he was intentionally engineering a market selloff and insisted he could not foresee market reactions,
Yet Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell has forewarned that Trump’s new tariffs will cause higher prices, job losses and lower growth.
The chair of the Federal Reserve, which sets interest rates for the US, issued the chilling outlook as he said the central bank faces tough decisions ahead as it navigates the economic fallout.
Wall Street analysts had expected the Fed to go beyond its planned two rate cuts for 2025 as recession fears grow over the new tariffs.
But Powell said the central bank won’t make any moves until it has a clearer sense of the fallout.
In the meantime, Americans across the country took to the streets to protest Trump’s actions as major global companies changed their plans.
On Friday, Nintendo delayed pre-orders of its new console at the 11th hour. Dodge-maker Stellantis also announced abrupt layoffs on Thursday.