Source: Wall Street News

Hedge Fund boss Bill Ackman publicly criticized Trump's global tariff plan, calling it "erroneous" and "overly", calling for a 90-day suspension of tariffs to give new time to formulate more strategic trade.

On April 7, Ackman posted several articles on social media, making it clear that the large-scale retaliatory tariffs on countries around the world on April 9 - "far more than the tariff levels we bear" - was a mistake. In Ackman's opinion, the correct way is to suspend 90 days.

Ackman said trying to reach an agreement at a time when the market collapsed would not help negotiations, and whoever recommends the plan to Trump should be fired immediately.

In another tweet, Ackman pointed out that business activity is essentially a game based on confidence, and the building of confidence depends on trust. By imposing large and disproportionate tariffs, the United States is actually launching an economic war against the world. This approach is undermining the U.S. confidence as a trading partner, venue for business activities and investment markets.

Ackman stressed that Trump has the opportunity to announce a 90-day moratorium, negotiate a settlement of the tariff agreement and attract trillions of dollars of new investment into the United States. On the contrary, if the so-called "nuclear war" is launched on April 9, commercial investment will stagnate, consumers will tighten spending, the United States' reputation around the world will be seriously damaged, and it may take years or even decades to restore its reputation:

Which CEO and which board of directors are willing to make large-scale long-term economic commitments in our country during the nuclear war?

I don't know any of them.

When the market crashes, new investments stop, consumers stop spending, and companies have no choice but to cut investments and fire employees.

It's not just that big companies will suffer losses. Small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs will suffer even more. Few businesses can pass on the cost increase to customers overnight. This is the case even if they have no debt, and unfortunately there is a lot of leverage in the system.

Business is a game of confidence. The president is losing confidence as a global business leader. The consequences for us and the millions of citizens who support the President—especially low-income consumers who are already under enormous economic pressure—will be extremely negative. This is not the result of our vote.

Ackman said Trump had the opportunity to pause on Monday to gain time to correct the tariff system. "Otherwise, we will face a self-initiated nuclear winter and we'd better start to prepare. Hopefully, a smarter mind will prevail,"Ackman wrote.

Ackman responded to those who tried to question his views. These people tried to prove that he had a conflict of interest or was susceptible to tariffs, market crashes or adjustments, and even believed that he deliberately arranged a portfolio in order to benefit from the 90-day suspension of the implementation of the reciprocal tariffs he proposed.

Ackman clarified:

Whether it was himself or his Pershing Capital Management Company Square), none of them use any margin leverage or any other instrument or arrangement, and if the market crashes, none of these will cause liquidity problems to the company or the funds he manages. They have never used margin and will not use it in the future.

They have a lot of cash on hand and are ready to deploy from the sale of a recent large investment.

They have only one investment—the Nike 3-year call option, which is directly affected by tariffs, and this position accounts for only 1.5% of their portfolio.

Unlike many other asset managers, their capital base is more than 90% permanent, so they are not at risk of investor redemption.

They have some of the world’s greatest businesses that have lasting growth models and highly dominant franchises

Their company is well capitalized and, even with debt, is a long-term, step-by-step maturity structure.

Ackman also said they will not short stocks and have not set up any hedging measures to protect them from market crashes because they are long-term investors.

If the market crashes, they will suffer losses denominated by market cap, but they will not sell stocks in a downward market. Instead, they will buy great businesses at a significant discount, which will benefit them and their investors in the long term.

In addition, Ackman said that their company may buy back their own stocks, which will increase their intrinsic value per share, thereby increasing the value of the company in the long term.

In the long term, they will be with Its economic health is closely related. If it is necessary to say that this is an investment "conflict", then this is the only "conflict".