Trump Ally Bill Ackman Urges China To ‘Call The President’ And Negotiate Tariff War

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman asked China on Wednesday to start negotiating with the U.S. President before warning that the longer it holds out and retaliates, the worse the outcome would be.

“Pick up the phone and call the President. He is a tough but fair negotiator,” the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management said in a post on X.

Ackman, who endorsed Trump in 2024, was among the many business leaders who had criticized the tariffs imposed by the U.S. last week and warned of a global "economic nuclear war."

On Wednesday, Trump paused the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to allow for negotiations after a meltdown in global stock markets.

However, he raised the tariffs on China to 125% after Beijing retaliated with its own reciprocal tariffs.

Ackman, who hailed Wednesday’s announcement as “Art of the Deal” in a reference to the President’s book of the same name, said that Trump’s decisions have helped the U.S. understand which countries are its preferred trading partners and “who the problems are.”

“China has shown themselves to be a bad actor,” Ackman said.

In a reply to Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who had criticized Ackman for the earlier post, he said, “Time is not China’s friend as every U.S. corporation with a supply chain based in China is seeking to move it to countries that are likely to make favorable tariff deals with the U.S.”

He also said that China is now isolated as other trading partners want to make deals.

Earlier this week, Ackman called on Trump to pause tariffs for 90 days or risk losing the confidence of allies and businesses.

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