Business leaders from Bill Ackman to Mark Cuban react to Trump's tariff pause

• President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause in his tariff plan against some countries.
• Stocks, which had fallen following news of his aggressive strategy, surged in response to the pause.
• Business leaders across the spectrum, from Bill Ackman to Mark Cuban, reacted disparately.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced via a social media post a planned 90-day pause in his aggressive tariff plan against some countries, sending ripples through the business community.

The market, which had plummeted following news of the president's trade strategy, surged in response to the planned pause, while industry leaders from across the political spectrum gave their initial reactions.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, in a post on X, wrote, "This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump. Textbook, Art of the Deal."

Ackman had previously advocated for a pause in the tariffs' implementation "to enable negotiations to be completed without a major global economic disruption that will harm the most vulnerable companies and citizens of our country."

"The benefit of @realDonaldTrump 's approach is that we now understand who are our preferred trading partners, and who the problems are," Ackman said in a separate post following the announcement of the pause. "China has shown themselves to be a bad actor. Our counterparties also have a taste of what life is like if they don't take down their trade barriers. This is the perfect setup for trade negotiations over the next 90 days."

Ackman continued: "Advice for China: Pick up the phone and call the President. He is a tough but fair negotiator. The longer China holds out and retaliates, the worse the outcome for China."

Chris Fralic, a partner at the venture capital firm First Round Capital, posted on X a screenshot of the tickers of several surging stocks, writing it's, "Good to be liberated from Liberation Day."

"If your portfolio drops by X% and then rises by X%, you'll still be below your starting point," Fralic wrote in a separate post. "The bigger the drop, the more pronounced this effect becomes. A 20% drop followed by a 20% rise leaves you at 96% of your original value."

In response to a post by Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym for Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus, which read, "The next 4 years are gonna be an insane roller coaster, aren't they?" Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied simply with a "100" emoji.

Over on Bluesky, the X alternative social media site, Cost Plus Drugs cofounder and "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban re-posted a statement from economist Paulo dos Santos, which described Trump's tariffs as "the Ivermectin of economic strategy," referencing the anti-parasitic drug used by some to treat COVID-19 infections, despite reservations from the medical community.

In a separate post made just before Trump announced the tariff pause, Cuban wrote: "What some people aren't factoring into their analysis is the reality that companies were buying tons of inventory to beat the tariffs. That's cash taken from being able to invest or hire. In fact the probably cut costs and jobs as a result."