Citadel CEO Ken Griffin rejected President Trump’s tariff strategy as ineffective in bringing back manufacturing jobs during his address at Stanford University, declaring that these positions are gone for good.
“These jobs are not coming back to America,” Griffin told students at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business on Friday. “And to be clear, with an unemployment rate of 4%, America has moved on.”
While acknowledging Trump’s vision, Griffin expressed measured appreciation for the president’s intentions. “He dreams of giving people their dignity back, and I have to applaud him for having that dream,” Griffin said, before adding that the dream of creating more manufacturing jobs “is not going to come true.”
Griffin, who last week described the trade war as having devolved into a “nonsensical” place, urged the United States to focus on its strengths rather than pursuing policies aimed at reviving factory work increasingly replaced by automation.
The billionaire investor recounted a conversation with a senior Chinese government official who questioned America’s trade strategy. According to Griffin, the official wondered why US policy would aim to foster low-paying factory jobs and become more like China, instead of maintaining the economic model China itself is trying to emulate.
Griffin noted that jobs in intellectual property and content creation “pay a stunning amount of money as compared to working in a factory, making zippers or making home appliances or making flat-screen TVs.”
Despite being a major Republican donor, Griffin criticized the handling of globalization’s effects, saying that the US “screwed up” when it came to helping workers who lost their jobs. He acknowledged that much of Trump’s electoral support came from people who felt economically marginalized.
With the administration recently pausing plans for additional tariffs, Griffin suggested this creates space “to take a step back and reflect” on achieving economic goals while preserving America’s global leadership role. Griffin has yet to see how the White House will respond to his suggestions.
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