Cracks appear among Trump’s cheerleaders amid market turmoil

As the world reels from President Donald Trump’s trade war, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is alerting shareholders that the tariffs will “slow down growth.” Podcaster Ben Shapiro is warning that the president’s vision of international trade is “mistaken.” And Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is advising that the tariff strategy carries “enormous risk.”

Trump’s tariffs are increasingly alienating some of the corporate titans, influencers and even Republican lawmakers who served as his boosters, as the president plows ahead with a trade strategy that has prompted wild swings in the markets. The criticism is an early sign that the economic turmoil caused by his trade war could leave lasting political scars for Trump, who doubled down on the strategy by threatening new tariffs against China on Monday morning.

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The chiding marks a departure from the general acquiescence among Trump’s allies during the first 2½ months of his shock-and-awe presidency. Influential leaders in many spheres largely remained silent or cautiously supported the White House as it slashed the federal workforce, strained alliances with Europe and unleashed an immigration crackdown during the first 70 days in office.

World leaders who have sought to appease Trump’s “America First” agenda amid wars in Ukraine and Gaza are also coming to the negotiating table, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a last-minute visit to the White House amid the economic threats and while Trump fields calls from other worried heads of state.

Trump appeared undeterred by the public pressure on Monday, saying that he would not pause the tariffs. But major stock indexes closed largely flat after he suggested that he was open to striking deals with countries seeking to mitigate the tariff fallout. “We’re going to get fair deals and good deals with every country. And if we don’t, we’re going to have nothing to do with them,” Trump said.

The cracks in Trump’s clout were most visible in corporate America, as the executives who once touted Trump’s policies as good for business raced to measure the impact of the tariffs on their portfolios and supply chains. Executives who sounded the alarm on Trump’s plans for tariffs during his first term had minimized the impact of the duties during the early weeks of his administration.

Dimon, widely viewed as one of the most influential leaders on Wall Street, told CNBC in January that the tariffs were a “valuable” economic weapon and to “get over it.”

But on Monday, he used his influential annual shareholders letter to warn that Trump’s menu of levies would result in “inflationary outcomes” both on imports and prices in the United States.

“The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession,” he wrote.

Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who endorsed Trump after the July assassination attempt, wrote on X on Sunday that going ahead with the new tariffs was tantamount to launching an “economic nuclear war.” He pressed the White House to slow down and institute a pause on the levies.

“This is not what we voted for,” he wrote.

On Friday, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks delivered a grim assessment of the impact of Trump’s tariffs on corporate America – warning that companies would probably have to slash research or staff.

“It’s a pivot in U.S. policy, and it feels like it’ll be hard to come back from here,” he said during an interview Friday with the BBC.

His tone was starkly different from his optimistic disposition in late February, when he joined with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other top administration officials in Washington to announce that Eli Lilly would invest at least $27 billion in expanding manufacturing in the United States.

Some CEOs are breaking their silence after largely betting that the Trump White House would be good for business. Many CEOs have been wary to criticize any of the president’s policies, for fear that they would lose their seats at the table or become a target for the president’s attacks, just as law firms, universities and other institutions have done.

Last week, major trade groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, criticized Trump’s trade policies as companies sought power in numbers in voicing their concerns to the Trump administration.

“Trade associations speaking up is a toe in the water,” said one industry lobbyist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the discussions.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one of Trump’s top advisers, broke with Trump’s strategy, saying at an event Saturday that he hoped to see a “zero-tariff situation” between North America and Europe. He also took swipes at Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who has been a key advocate for the tariffs.

“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem,” Musk wrote in one post.

He also wrote that Lutnick’s defense of tariffs on uninhabited islands was “funny,” adding a smiling emoji.

Many of Trump’s other surrogates in industry have been notably silent as the stock market slides. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and other business leaders who endorsed Trump for president have not commented on the tariffs, after previously boosting Trump’s economic policies.

Throughout the campaign and the early weeks of his presidency, a cohort of podcasters and online influencers have helped boost Trump to their millions of followers. But in recent days, some of them began to lash out.

Shapiro, who initially supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary before switching his support to Trump, spent much of his recent episodes highlighting the flaws in Trump’s tariff push to his audience.

“The president’s vision of international trade is, I’m sorry to say, mistaken,” he said this week on “The Ben Shapiro Show.” “So this is a massive tax increase on American consumers. That’s what it is. And it is designed to be so,” he said, adding that it is “probably unconstitutional … one of the biggest tax increases on consumers in history,” which he said was “predicated on a bad idea of how international trade works.”

The emerging criticism has not been limited to tariffs. Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host who endorsed Trump on the eve of the election, called the administration’s error in inadvertently deporting legal immigrants “horrific.”

“The thing is, like, you got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting, like, lassoed up and deported and sent to, like, El Salvador prisons,” Rogan said on a recent podcast episode. Rogan was referring to Andry José Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan makeup artist who was deported to El Salvador after the Trump administration identified him as a Tren de Aragua gang member through his tattoos, which family members have said have nothing to do with the gang. Rogan had already derided Trump’s fight with Canada.

“This is so ridiculous. I can’t believe that there’s like anti-American and anti-Canadian sentiment going on,” he said. “I think it’s ridiculous … and I don’t really think they should be our 51st state,” he added.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy criticized the tariffs in a video recorded last week. Portnoy, a supporter of Trump, said that he is “down 7 million bucks in stocks and crypto, and it’s tariff city. Trump has put his tariffs all over the place. I’ve been trying to understand them. I don’t. Like it’s more a trade deficit tariff.”

Senate Republicans – including Trump allies and critics – have grown increasingly concerned about the tariffs Trump announced Wednesday as the stock market dived.

“People are going to panic if this continues, and they’re in a bit of panic now,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), describing the mood among Senate Republicans.

Still, concerns about the tariffs haven’t led Trump’s supporters to sour on him yet, he said.

If the tariffs start “hurting individuals and they start feeling that hurt in substantial ways, even Donald Trump’s strongest supporters may second-guess,” Cramer said. “But I don’t think we’re at the second-guessing stage yet.”

Cruz, another Trump loyalist, warned that Trump’s tariff strategy carries “enormous risks.”

“I love President Trump,” the senator from Texas said Friday on his podcast, “Verdict With Ted Cruz.” “I am his strongest supporter in the Senate. I think he’s doing incredible things as president. But here’s one thing to understand: A tariff is a tax, and it is a tax principally on American consumers.”

Even as Republican senators worried about Trump’s tariffs, though, 51 of them voted Saturday morning for a budget framework that would allow them to start drafting his top legislative priority: a “big, beautiful bill” to cut taxes and increase border funding.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) said he would vote yes in part because of the economic uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariffs. “The stock market has had two successive days of greater than 1,500 points decline,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “This kind of crashing stock market creates uncertainty which makes companies less likely to invest, which makes it less likely that new jobs will be created.”