Citadel CEO Ken Griffin speaks at the 2025 Forbes Iconoclast Summit.
Jamel Toppin/Forbes
Billionaire Ken Griffin, founder of $63 billion (in assets) Citadel hedge fund and market maker Citadel Securities, slammed the Trump Administration’s handling of the economy and the Republicans’ new tax and spending bill in remarks at Thursday’s 2025 Forbes Iconoclast Summit. A prominent Republican political donor who voted for President Donald Trump during the last election, Griffin criticized the GOP’s signature bill–which they’re dubbed the “One Bill Beautiful Bill”—over concerns about how it would increase the federal budget deficit and ballooning federal debt. (Just yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficits over the next decade.)
“The bill will unquestionably add several trillion dollars,” said Griffin. “The challenge with the legislation is there’s not enough tough decisions… around how we’re going to put our fiscal house in order.”
The mammoth bill, which is backed by President Trump, narrowly passed the House of Representatives last month and is now being worked on in the Senate, which is expected to make at least some changes. Earlier this week Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, who just finished 130 days heading up Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), slammed the bill in a series of posts on social media, labeling it an “abomination” and calling for it to be killed.
Griffin, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of $44.5 billion, echoed concerns about government spending. “You cannot run deficits of 6 or 7% [of GDP] at full employment after years of growth. That’s just fiscally irresponsible,” he said. “There will come a time when we have to have our fiscal house in order.”
The hedge fund billionaire urged legislators to consider which components of the bill would actually be good for America. “For example: The continued reduction in tax rates for small and medium enterprise businesses; I’m not sure what we’re going to achieve with that,” said Griffin, in an apparent reference to a provision in the bill that expands and makes permanent the Section 199A tax deduction for income from partnerships, sole proprietorships and S Corporations, that is taxed on owners’ individual tax returns. He added that creating additional tax cuts for consumers to offset higher prices from tariffs or inflation is also bad policy. The bill creates new deductions for seniors, tip and overtime income, and interest on car loans.
The Citadel CEO slammed Trump for recently criticizing Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who last month warned of needing to raise prices in response to higher import costs. “We should not criticize CEOs for being honest, right? And that’s all the CEO of Walmart was doing,” said Griffin. “Shame on the administration.”
Griffin condemned Trump’s tariff policies for having “really taken their toll already on our economy” and “call[ing] into question American exceptionalism.” His firm has cut estimates for U.S. economic growth by roughly half since Trump took office.
He also criticized the administration’s efforts to bring back manufacturing domestically. “Why are we aspiring to be the nation with the lowest cost and lowest paid workforce in the world? That makes no sense to me,” he said, referring to jobs that are now even leaving China. “Obviously we want to take steps to encourage manufacturing but it is one thing to make Nikes, it is another to make F-35 fighters—we are missing the target here.”
Despite the challenges ahead, Griffin remained hopeful. “It’s powerful to watch American corporate executives navigate these cross-currents,” he said. “Nobody is giving up or throwing in the towel—it’s a statement on the resiliency of our nation.”
