America's most influential billionaires turn on Trump: 'Economy is weakening as we speak'

Billionaires Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink have both begun to express their concern about the impact of Donald Trump's policies on the US economy. 

JPMorgan Chase CEO Dimon, who has had a bumpy relationship with the President, warned this week that the uncertainty around tariffs is 'not a good thing' for business.

This was a marked turn from his blunt response two months ago when asked about people protesting Trump's tariff proposals, when he told them to 'get over it.'

Fellow billionaire Fink, who is CEO of investment management company BlackRock, also said on Wednesday that the volatility around the policy changes is already hurting the economy. 

Trump has proposed sweeping tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which have been delayed twice. 

On Thursday, he also threatened a giant 200 percent duty on champagne and wine from the European Union. 

Uncertainty around these proposals has spooked the stock market. The S&P 500 has fallen 10 percent since its peak on February 19, which investors term a 'correction.'

The plunge is the seventh-fastest correction since records began after the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Fink, who has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, said that the Trump administration's barrage of policy changes is paralyzing American consumers and businesses, CNN reported.  

'The collective impact in the short run is that people are pausing, they're pulling back,' he told the outlet. 

'Talking to CEOs throughout the economy, I hear that the economy is weakening as we speak.'

The administration has also been aggressively laying off federal workers across many departments. 

Fink said the uncertainty sowed by these dramatic changes is unsettling companies and federal workers, and it remains to be seen what effect this could have long term.

'All of these things have that ripple effect, and we will see over a long cycle whether this ripple effect gets worse or does it stabilize,' he said. 

However he added that he was still 'very bullish on America,' and said that the administration's policies, including tariffs, could be beneficial for the economy over time. 

'Right now the president is focusing on tariffs, but when he talks about reciprocal tariffs, actually, that may bring down tariffs over the long run.'

Fink has previously faced backlash from Republican-led states over his company's climate targets. 

But he reportedly spoke to the President directly to discuss BlackRock's purchase of two Panama Canal ports which would shift them into American hands, according to Fortune. 

Trump has pledged to seize the Panama Canal, which is a key waterway that facilitates hundreds of billions of dollars of trade annually.

'The decision was purely economic, and we believe this is going to be great long term investment,' Fink told CNN. 

'My conversation with the president was positive, it was optimistic… but if it was four months earlier, I would have been calling the prior administration.' 

JPMorgan CEO Dimon, meanwhile, who is worth an estimated $2.3 billion, appeared to change his tune by expressing his concerns about the impact of tariffs in an interview with Semafor on Wednesday. 

'I don't think the average American consumer who wakes up in the morning and goes to work… changes what they're going to do because they read about tariffs,' he said.

'But I do think companies might. Uncertainty is not a good thing.'

Dimon has had a bumpy relationship with the President in the past. 

He was forced to publicly deny that he had endorsed Trump during his presidential campaign in October, and reportedly privately backed his rival Kamala Harris.

But Dimon surprised some people when he was originally asked about tariffs in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

'If it's a little inflationary, but it's good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it,' Dimon told CNBC at the time.

'National security trumps a little bit more inflation.'