CEO of Citadel Ken Griffin is interviewed Chairman of the Milken Institute Michael Milken (not pictured) during the Milken Institute Global Conference 2025 successful Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 7, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin connected Thursday knocked the Trump administration for making deals with ample corporations to debar the afloat grade of its tariff policies, describing specified agreements arsenic anti-American.
"Is that our country, that we're going to favour the large and the connected?," Griffin told CNBC's Sara Eisen successful an exclusive interrogation from Miami. "That's not the American story."
"When the authorities becomes progressive successful picking winners and losers, there's lone 1 mode this crippled ends: All of america lose," added Griffin, a billionaire and apical Wall Street figure.
Griffin's comments travel arsenic U.S. companies person raced to marque agreements with the White House that let them to debar the steepest levies placed connected imports from galore overseas countries. Multiple well-known businesses including Apple and Nvidia person announced significant home investments successful caller months, which person been viewed by immoderate arsenic ways to summation favour from the Trump administration.
"I spoke astir my concerns with the crony capitalism if we went down the way of tariffs," Griffin said. "The enactment extracurricular the White House of each concern arguing wherefore they should beryllium exempt from paying tariffs connected what they import into their products is nauseating."
The Wall Street bigwig said tariffs tin beryllium considered akin to a "national income tax." Because the levies would marque up a higher proportionality of household income for little earners, Griffin said determination are "issues of equity and fairness" progressive with Trump's tariff policy.
Griffin warned that companies should enactment cautiously erstwhile it comes to trying to triumph favour of a existent White House team. He said those companies could find themselves disliked oregon having to marque caller deals erstwhile a caller idiosyncratic takes the nation's highest office.
"It's the government's engagement successful picking winners and losers. And we should tread cautiously connected that water," Griffin said. "In fact, we should conscionable enactment retired of it. That's wherever the crocodiles live."
"The halfway competency won't beryllium that you tin thrust innovation," helium added. "It's that you tin thrust the close favors from D.C."
English (US) ·