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Donald Trump’s commerce warfare dangers sparking capital flight from the US because the president’s unpredictable tariff insurance policies trigger “huge” harm, hedge fund Elliott Administration has warned.
The activist agency, based and co-led by Republican megadonor Paul Singer, stated in a letter to traders seen by the Monetary Instances that the Trump administration’s financial programme may tarnish the enchantment of the greenback and of doing enterprise within the US.
That may danger “capital flight” and a “important” fall in worth of the forex and US property, Elliott stated in a bit of the late April letter titled “Bonfire of the American period?”
Elliott declined to remark.
The warning comes after Trump’s tariff blitz triggered weeks of turmoil in monetary markets, and marks the most recent criticism of the White Home from the $73bn-in-assets hedge fund, which earlier this 12 months stated the president’s embrace of cryptocurrencies was fuelling a speculative mania.
The tariffs contemplated by the administration had been “probably extra stringent than those that exacerbated the Nice Melancholy within the Nineteen Thirties”, Elliott wrote within the letter, which was despatched to traders after Trump introduced a 90-day pause to his sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs on US buying and selling companions final month, however earlier than this week’s US-China commerce deal fuelled an additional restoration in markets.
“Such tariffs will generate a prolonged, sophisticated means of negotiation, retaliation and uncertainty for companies across the globe” that might trigger “huge” harm, the agency added.
Singer has been a significant donor to Republicans lately, donating $56mn to the occasion’s candidates within the final election cycle, based on web site OpenSecrets.
A small group of high Wall Avenue figures have spoken out towards Trump’s financial insurance policies. Citadel founder Ken Griffin, one other main Republican donor, stated final 12 months that the president’s tariff plans would put the US “on a slippery slope to crony capitalism”. Invoice Ackman, a supporter of Trump within the 2024 presidential marketing campaign, has described the tariffs as “a major policy error”, whereas billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller has stated he doesn’t help tariffs exceeding 10 per cent.
Elliott additionally stated within the letter that the sell-off that adopted Trump’s “liberation day” tariff bulletins prompted “capital destruction on a big scale”.
The S&P 500 index was down by as a lot as 15 per cent in 2025 in early April, however has since recovered all of these losses as commerce tensions receded.
Nonetheless, Elliott stated the episode highlighted the “brittleness” of a “massively overvalued inventory market”.
The hedge fund was up about 2.5 per cent within the first quarter of the 12 months, based on figures within the letter. The turmoil sparked by tariffs was more likely to create larger alternatives for activist investing, as market stress “exposes weak spot at firms in want in fact correction”, the agency added.
