Ken Griffin has been something of a critical friend to the White House since President Trump won the Oval Office. Griffin, the CEO of Citadel ($400-billion–plus assets under management), was open about the fact that he voted for Trump in last year’s election and would do what he could to support the administration, but has cautioned the president about certain policies in the months since.
This has included warning the White House against intervening too closely with central bank policy, and raising questions about some aspects of tariff policy. And this is where the hedge fund billionaire has raised further questions this week, making it clear he doesn’t believe preferential treatment should be showed to America’s biggest businesses.
Trump has made it clear that backing U.S. business will be the central theme of his second presidency, and has surrounded himself with some of the most notable names in the economy. This has included bringing Tesla CEO Elon Musk into the White House to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and having executives from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai in the front row of his swearing-in ceremony.
The revolving door of Magnificent Seven CEOs coming through the White House is perhaps to be expected with a businessman in the Oval Office, but Griffin warned potential preferential treatment of certain companies shouldn’t be encouraged.
