- Billionaire Ken Griffin cautioned the incoming Trump administration from adopting extreme policies.
- Speaking in New York Thursday, Griffin lauded the work of immigrants and warned against cutting taxes.
- He also voiced his support for Apollo CEO Marc Rowan for Treasury Secretary.
Billionaire Citadel founder Ken Griffin is one of the biggest donors to the Republican Party but has some worries about the effect of potential policies promised by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Speaking Thursday at the Economic Club of New York, Griffin said immigration and inflation were clearly the two biggest problems for voters this election. However, severe policy responses could hurt the country and the economy.
Immigration to the US, he said, should still be open to people who want to come and work and be a part of the American community. Deporting everyone who isn't a citizen would also increase inflation as Americans "take for granted" the work undocumented immigrants do every day.
"I'm not sure how this lunch would work" without this group of people, he said.
"It's not feasible for us to deport every person who is not an American citizen and expect the economy to work the next day."
Additionally, the "best and brightest" around the world should still be drawn to the US and the country should make it easy for them to come and build businesses here, he said. He noted that a majority of Citadel's leadership team are immigrants, and the CEO of his market maker, Citadel Securities, Chinese-born Peng Zhao, is an example of "how fortunate our country has been."
While Griffin has fought against tax increases in the past, including a $54 million campaign to defeat an Illinois tax initiative in 2020, he warned against cutting taxes given the country's debt.
"We don't have the fiscal room to cut taxes from where they are today," he said, noting some taxes might even need to be raised and that putting "America's fiscal house back in order" will make politicians take "really unpopular" positions.
Griffin's plea to Marc Rowan
Griffin is not the first Wall Street leader to push for a more moderate immigration and tax policy approach. Speaking a few blocks away on Thursday morning, Manny Roman, CEO of California-based PIMCO, said that pairing a tight labor market and an anti-immigration stance is a concern, as tax-paying, goods-consuming immigrants are good for growth and fill the demand for labor.
"You need to have a pro-immigration policy, and that's the tension," he said in an interview with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker at the Evident AI Symposium in New York.
"There are all sorts of promises I can't tell the one that the new administration will follow," he said. "Giving tax cuts to wealthy people is probably not the most conducive thing that one could do."
Roman said that tax cuts and tariffs will increase the government deficit, leaving the Trump administration with less room for error in choosing policies.
"So the margins of error are actually not that wide, and you can make a perfectly reasonable argument as the Trump administration will have less leeway than they wish they had because of the constraints and industry condition," Roman said.
In a Reuters article two days after the election, an unnamed Wall Street leader hoped Trump's aides would rein in extreme policies that could increase the deficit.
The current chatter on Wall Street has been around the potential nominee for Treasury Secretary, which has had plenty of donors and advisors, helped by their surrogates, battling for the nod. A recent name that has gotten traction is Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, who was interviewed by Trump at his Florida home earlier this week.
Griffin complimented Rowan's abilities Thursday in New York.
In a message to Rowan during his talk, Griffin asked that he — on behalf of himself and "everyone in the room" — "please take the job."
Laughter came and quickly subsided before Griffin spoke again.
"Please take the job," he repeated.