US President Donald Trump has been told the best thing he could do is to go off and play golf for another four years. Karen Ward, a managing director at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said Trump was mistaken in wanting to “repeat what he began in 2016” and that the US economy had been doing fine until he was re-elected last November.
Ward, who was addressing an audience at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association annual investment conference, said: “The best thing he could do, for all of us, but also for the US, would have been to have gone off and played golf for four years, because the US was doing perfectly fine.”
Ward said stockmarkets and investors were initially excited by Trump’s return to power.
“I was hearing all of this commentary, all of these peers of mine speaking saying, well, whatever you think of him as an individual, we have been here before, and we know that he’s good for the economy and he’s good for the S&P (Wall Street)
“He’s just going to widen that divergence that’s already been evident between the US and the rest of the world, both economically and for markets.
“And as I was sat there listening to that commentary. I felt uncomfortable about it, because for me, it was, well, hang on, this isn’t 2016 the economy he is inheriting.”
Ward said Trump’s decision to focus on a tariff agenda and cutting taxes was already running into trouble.
“Far from making America great again, [he might] end doing more harm than good.
“And I’m afraid to say that is exactly what we’re seeing. We’re seeing that in the data the tariffs, which we call this the Hokey cokey of tariffs, they’re on, they’re off again.
“They’re on, they’re off again, and overall, we’re left incredibly dizzy. They are creating a tremendous amount of uncertainty. They are damaging business confidence in the US.
Ward said interest rate cuts the Federal Reserve – the US central bank – thought it was going to be making were being ‘taken off the table’.
She said the tariffs would hurt the US the most.
Back in 2016, he cut the corporation tax. But this isn’t 2016 when he took office. Then he could do that because his fiscal deficit was 3% of GDP.
“It’s now 7% and might be climbing as high as 9% GDP.
“So look, I’m sat here now watching what he’s been up to and thinking surely at some point someone is going to say to him, ‘Go and play golf, because you are not helping’.
“‘You are not making America great again. I’m waiting for those conversations to be had. I’m waiting for the S&P to hit a level at which his phone is ringing off the hook as he gets that advice from his CEO friends.
“What’s really interesting though is actually how it’s not so much Maga, it’s Mega. It seems like he’s making Europe great again, because he has galvanized the region into action. Europe has said, ‘We have to get our act together’. And they really are. And we should not underestimate how this changing tide, this changing policy in Europe, is going to change the nature of activity in the region.”