Citadel’s Ken Griffin emerges as rare Wall Street critic of Trump

While most executives avoid public clashes with President Donald Trump, hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin has repeatedly broken ranks. The Citadel founder and one of the GOP’s top donors has voiced concern over tariffs, deficit spending and large-scale deportations, warning that they could harm growth and fuel inflation, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

In a recent op-ed for the newspaper co-authored with University of Chicago professor Anil Kashyap, Griffin criticized Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve and the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief. Publicly pressuring the Fed, they argued, risks raising inflation expectations, boosting risk premiums and eroding investor confidence in U.S. institutions.

Griffin has previously called tariffs “anti-growth” and a “huge policy mistake,” and said Trump’s latest spending bill failed to make tough fiscal choices. At a June conference, he rebuked the administration for attacking Walmart’s (WMT) CEO over price hikes tied to tariffs, calling it unfair to criticize an executive for being honest about costs.

Despite the sharp policy critiques, Griffin avoids direct personal criticism of Trump and maintains backchannel ties to the White House. Citadel staffers stay in regular contact with lawmakers and campaigns, and Griffin worked with the administration during the Covid vaccine rollout.

Griffin, who relocated Citadel from Chicago to Miami in 2022, has built the firm into one of the world’s largest hedge funds with $68 billion under management. A major Republican benefactor, he gave more than $100 million to conservative candidates in 2024 but pointedly withheld financial support for Trump’s re-election bid. He has since contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee while continuing to push for deregulation, tighter border enforcement and measures to combat fentanyl, the Journal reported.

As one of the country’s biggest political donors, second only to Elon Musk, Griffin remains a central figure in Republican fundraising ahead of the 2026 midterms, even as he positions himself as a cautious, independent voice on Trump-era economic policy, according to the newspaper.

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