Trump’s tariffs are costing his rich pals billions
The billionaires who gleefully bought front-row seats to President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January seem to now be living out a horror movie—except, instead of dying, they’re bleeding billions from their fortunes.
Trump’s reckless economic policies were already scorching their portfolios, but his retaliatory tariffs this week have sent the stock market into a free fall, dragging his new buddies’ personal wealth down with it.
The 500 richest people in the world lost a combined $208 billion on Thursday due to the stock crash that Trump caused, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And one of the biggest losers is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose fortune shrank by $15.9 billion after Amazon shares tanked 9% on Thursday, giving the company its worst day since April 2022.
Somehow, though, even that got eclipsed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who lost a staggering $17.9 billion in one day, or about 9% of his total net worth.
And then there’s Trump’s “first buddy” Elon Musk, whose ride-or-die status with the White House has been as volatile as his social media feed. Musk has lost $110 billion this year, including a loss of $11 billion on Thursday alone. (His car company, Tesla, is already in rough shape.)
Of course, everyday Americans are feeling the pain too, or they will be soon.
On Thursday, analysts at JPMorgan raised their forecast for a recession within the next year from 40% to a jaw-dropping 60%, The Wall Street Journal reported. A recession usually leads to a high unemployment rate, and if one happens, it almost surely won’t lead to these CEOs losing their jobs. Or their homes.
Still, Trump doesn’t care how the little guy fares—but maybe, just maybe, he’ll snap out of it once he sees how hard his policies are hitting his friends.
According to Bloomberg’s index, other casualties in Trump’s economic massacre include Google co-founder Sergey Brin (down $4.5 billion in a single day), Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison (down $8.1 billion), and Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson and right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch, who lost $942 million and $590 million, respectively.
The thing is, many of these people are simply reaping what they sowed.
For example, Bezos turned The Washington Post into a quiet haven for Trumpism (whoops), which has led to it losing top-tier talent and subscriptions. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has been slinking around the White House and trying to stay in Trump’s good graces. And for what? Billions, gone in a blink.
Trump, as always, remains delusional. “I think it’s going very well,” he said Thursday of his tariff policy. Then, on Friday, he doubled down in a post on his Truth Social platform, claiming his economic vision will “NEVER CHANGE.”
“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!” he added.
But his billionaire friends probably aren’t exactly popping champagne over that one.