Citadel CEO Ken Griffin will speak at the Semafor World Economy Summit 2025 held in Conrad Washington, DC on April 23, 2025.
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images
Billionaire Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of the Citadel Hedge Fund, said working-class Americans will bear the brunt of President Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs on US trading partners.
“The tariffs have hit hard-working Americans’ pocketbooks with the most difficulties,” Griffin said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Wednesday. “It’s like a sales tax for the American people. It’s going to hit people who work hard to achieve their goals. It’s my big problem with tariffs. It’s a very painfully boring tax.”
Trump last month shocked high taxes on imports, causing an extreme shaking on Wall Street. The president later continued to announce a 90-day suspension for most of the increase, except for China, as the White House tried to attack deals with major trading partners. Trump slapped 145% tariffs on imported Chinese goods this year, urging China to impose a 125% retaliation.
Griffin, who had managed more than $65 billion in the beginning of 2025 by the hedge fund, voted for Trump and was a mega-donor of Republican politicians. But he also criticised Trump’s trade policy and said it risks ruining the “brand” of the US and its government bond market.
“The reason why American voters elected President Trump is due to the failure of Joe Biden’s economic policies and the inflation shock that reduced the actual income of all American households,” Griffin said. “The president needs to focus on managing inflation because I think it’s the frontline and center, the main scorecards that American voters are trying to think about when it comes to this midterm election.”
Titan on Wall Street said higher tariffs create inflation pressure and slows the economy, resulting in risk of “conservative” stagflation. He said the economic trajectory depends heavily on how Trump’s economic policies develop.
As laid out by Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent, Trump’s economic program employs three approaches: trade, tax cuts and deregulation.
“The question is, will all three of them come together to give us the growth we need for the economy?” asked Griffin. “That’s a real question we’ll face over the next two years.”
