Jan 21 (Reuters) – Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, said on Wednesday that the United States had “frayed its relationship” with its European allies in a way that the billionaire said he did not “understand or appreciate”.
Griffin’s comments, made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, come after President Donald Trump vowed over the weekend to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the United States was allowed to buy Greenland, escalating a row over the future of Denmark’s vast Arctic island.
Griffin, a Republican supporter who has said he voted for Trump in the 2024 election, also said that the U.S. had seen higher inflation due to Trump’s tariffs.
“We have disrupted long-standing trading relationships because of the tariffs,” he said.
Griffin also reiterated his concerns about the Trump administration’s criticism of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Trump has repeatedly demanded large interest rate cuts, accusing the Fed of being too slow to lower borrowing costs and threatening to indict its chair, Jerome Powell, over comments he made.
“The easy money policies that Trump is trying to encourage the Fed to pursue increase the risk of inflation, and I think puts both him and his party in a more precarious position,” Griffin added.
Griffin has previously spoken of the need to maintain the Fed’s independence.
(Reporting by Shivani Tanna and Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Writing by Shubham Kalia; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Gareth Jones)
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