Bill Ackman Says There Won't Be Any Capital Gains To Tax This Year As Markets Quake From Trump Tariffs: 'I Am Proudly Long America'

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman went on an offensive late Sunday night against President Donald Trump's tariff policy that has sent global markets into a tizzy and sparked fears of a recession.

In a lengthy post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Ackman acknowledged that Trump had framed tariffs as the most pressing geopolitical issue as other nations had exploited trade imbalances at the expense of American jobs and economic growth.

Ackman warned that Trump's "massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike" risk sparking a global "economic nuclear war" and urged the president to "call a 90-day time out" to negotiate better trade deals and restore confidence.

"If, on the other hand, on April 9th we launch [an] economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocketbooks, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate." 

"Business is a confidence game," he wrote. "The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe."

Wall Street is enduring one of its most brutal periods, with nearly $10 trillion in market value wiped out since Trump began his second term in January. 

The S&P 500 is heading into more choppy waters on Monday after posting its worst week since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ackman also dismissed the idea that he has "somehow positioned our portfolio to benefit from my recommended 90-day pause on the implementation of reciprocal tariffs." 

The billionaire investor, who heads Pershing Square Capital Management, was one of Trump's most prominent backers on Wall Street in the run-up to his electoral victory last year.

Ackman also alleged that Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick — the former chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald — has a serious conflict of interest, claiming "he and Cantor are long bonds" and "profits when our economy implodes." 

"I am proudly long America," Ackman wrote.

Replying to a post claiming Trump's government aimed to eliminate capital gains tax in 2025, Ackman said, "There won't be any capital gains to tax."

On Sunday night aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters, "I don't want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something."

Earlier on Truth Social, he defended his tariffs, claiming they were a  "beautiful thing to behold." He added, "Some day people will realize that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!"

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