The Republican big money donors are starting to push back on tariffs

Billionaire Ken Griffin, who has a net worth of $42 billion and was the fifth-largest individual donor in the 2024 election cycle isn’t happy.

He says Donald Trump’s latest tariffs amount to a hefty tax on middle-class families and are a “huge policy mistake” by the administration.

It’s notable that Griffin’s largest donations were to the Senate Leadership Fund, and he single-handedly provided more than a quarter of total fundraising to the group. That’s also the group that has some power to push back on tariffs from within Congress.

He is not close with Trump and previously called him a “three-time loser” but donated $1m to his innauguration.

Here is a line from Griffin after the election:

Mr. Griffin downplayed one of the biggest concerns about Trumponomics — that tariffs could dent growth and accelerate inflation. He said it remained unclear whether Mr. Trump’s threats to slap tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China would materialize, adding that the talk of tariffs imposed by the United States was “small ball compared to the role that the world is looking to us for.” He said he didn’t see tariffs as the most important business issue.

Looks like he miscalculated on that one.

Griffin was the second or third-largest Republican donor in the 2022 midterms and has regularly finished in the top-5.

Fellow Republican mega-donor Ken Langone also criticized tariffs today in even-stronger words.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.