The video features a discussion on the economic repercussions following President Trump's declaration of April 2nd as "liberation day," which marked the introduction of sweeping tariff policies. The conversation between Forbes reporters Brittany Lewis and Kyle Kahn Mullins highlights the significant financial impacts these tariffs have wrought on global markets, leading to fears of a recession. Detailed analyses are presented on how Trump's top donors, including notable figures like Elon Musk and Miriam Adelson, suffered substantial losses due to the stock market declines tied to these policies.

The discourse focuses on the profound impact that Trump's tariffs have had on various notable billionaire donors, shedding light on the specific financial declines of individuals such as Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson, and Howard Lutnick. Despite being ardent supporters of Trump, several of these donors saw their fortunes diminish due to their business affiliations, especially those connected with China and other Asian markets heavily affected by the tariffs.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. liberation day [ˌlɪbəˈreɪʃən deɪ] - (noun) - A day declared for significant policy changes or celebrations of freedom. - Synonyms: (freedom day, independence day, emancipation day)

As we know, earlier this month, President Trump did announce and dub April 2nd as liberation day, where he unveiled his really sweeping tariff policy.

2. escalated [ˈɛskəˌleɪtɪd] - (verb) - Increased rapidly or became more intense. - Synonyms: (intensified, heightened, accelerated)

And since then, since then, global markets have melted down, trade wars have escalated, and recession fears have really bubbled up.

3. donor [ˈdoʊnər] - (noun) - A person or entity who gives money or resources to another. - Synonyms: (benefactor, contributor, patron)

But I want to talk about what you're reporting on, which is exactly how the tariff policies have impact President Trump's top donors.

4. tariff [ˈtær·ɪf] - (noun) - A tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports. - Synonyms: (duty, levy, tax)

Kyle, is there any other billionaire that's on this list that you want to touch on? You want to tell their story? You want to talk about how these tariff policies have been impacting their fortunes?

5. net worth [nɛt wɜrθ] - (noun) - The total assets minus total liabilities of an individual or company. - Synonyms: (equity, financial worth, capital)

We calculated just how much all of these top 10 biggest donors, how much their net worth dropped after the stock market crash on that day.

6. casino mogul [kəˈsiːnoʊ ˈmoʊɡəl] - (noun) - A very successful and powerful person in the gambling business. - Synonyms: (tycoon, magnate, business leader)

So number two on the list was Miriam Adelson on the the widow of Sheldon Adelson, big casino mogul.

7. financial services [faɪˈnænʃəl ˈsɜrvəsɪz] - (noun) - Economic services provided by the finance industry, including banking, investments, and insurance. - Synonyms: (banking, insurance, investments)

He's got an investment banking firm, you've got a brokerage firm. These are financial services companies.

8. bearish [ˈbɛrɪʃ] - (adjective) - Expecting a decline in prices, particularly in the stock market. - Synonyms: (pessimistic, declining, negative)

You know, they just today say they have a very bearish view on the US Market and the reason why is because of tariff uncertainty.

9. exposure [ɪkˈspoʊʒər] - (noun) - The state of being subject to a potential loss or risk. - Synonyms: (vulnerability, liability, risk)

That means that companies that have more exposure overseas are going to see a big slide

10. liquidity [lɪˈkwɪdəti] - (noun) - The availability of liquid assets to a market or company. - Synonyms: (cash flow, solvency, fluidity)

That said, he's got an enormous amount of liquidity from his crypto dealings, which are things that were a little bit harder to track.

This Is How Far Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's Net Worth Has Plunged Since Trump Tariff Rollout

Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is my Forbes colleague, money and politics reporter Kyle Kahn Mullins.

Kyle, thanks so much for joining me. Always great to be here, Brittany. Thanks for having me. As we know, earlier this month, President Trump did announce and dub April 2nd as liberation day, where he unveiled his really sweeping tariff policy. And since then, since then, global markets have melted down, trade wars have escalated, and recession fears have really bubbled up. But I want to talk about what you're reporting on, which is exactly how the tariff policies have impact President Trump's top donors. Talk to us about that.

Yeah. Nobody is safe in a global trade war. And that includes Donald Trump's top donors, my colleague Dan Alexander and I. The day after liberation day, we ran the numbers. We calculated just how much all of these top 10 biggest donors, how much their net worth dropped after the stock market crash on that day. And I should note this analysis was done as of the market close on Thursday. We're talking Monday afternoon, and the markets have only gone down further since then. So I do have some updated numbers for you from that are even more up to date than those, the numbers that were in our story. But at the time, we were looking at a drop of. Across all of his top 10 biggest donors, over $11 billion of wealth was wiped out.

So even more than $11 billion, you're saying, has been wiped out since Thursday. But let's cut right to the chase here. Let's talk about the number one person on that list. It's Elon Musk. He's the richest person in the world. He's also Trump's biggest donor. He's also President Trump's adviser. Past couple of months remind us just how much he's donated, how much he's worth, and how much he's lost since liberation day.

So Elon Musk, we calculated he gave around $360 million to Trump's reelection effort, which sounds like a ton of money. It is a ton of money. It's also a drop in the bucket for Elon Musk, who today is worth about $360 billion. And that is, as of right now, Forbes is, Forbes estimates that includes, you know, the stock prices that are fluctuating minute to minute. At the time we ran our article, he had lost about $8.7 billion of his net worth. That was largely due to Tesla stock sliding. That is up to over 26 billion as of I just checked a couple of minutes ago. So that looks like it's something like 6 or 7% of his entire net worth is slid. And I should note that doesn't even include, if you know, the valuations of his private companies that aren't publicly traded. We didn't look at those. Those presumably would have slid at least a little bit as well, given the generalized economic turmoil.

You're reporting that Musk and the number two on this donor list lost the most since President Trump unveiled these tariff policies. Talk to us about the number two and why these two are losing the most.

So number two on the list was Miriam Adelson on the the widow of Sheldon Adelson, big casino mogul. So Miriam Adelson, one of Trump's biggest donors. She gave over $100 million to his reelection effort in 2024. Her net worth as of right now is $27 billion, but she has actually slid a pretty substantial amount. We calculated it was about $1 billion when we published our article. That's up to almost $3 billion now. And the reason why both Xi and Mosque have seen the biggest losses, the first biggest thing is just they have bigger fortunes. So of course they're, you know, as a percentage, they're going to lose a little bit more. But the other big thing is that they're both pretty significantly exposed to business from China and East Asia, which are taking it on the chin with these tariffs.

What's really interesting about this list you compiled is that some of the people mentioned on the list also serve in the Trump administration. So I want to first talk about education secretary Linda McMahon and how has her bottom line been impacted?

Yeah, Linda McMahon, education secretary, like you said, so, hasn't exactly been weighing in too much on the tariffs themselves. This is not her area of expertise she's been put in charge of, according to Trump, and according to her, shutting down the Department of Education. That is her goal. She wants to be the last Secretary of Education, but she's also a billionaire. She and her husband, Vince McMahon, they founded WWE way back in the 80s, and they still own a bunch of shares in that company's now parent company, TKO Holdings. They did see a slide in their net worth, about $65 million. We calculated it then. That's probably up to over 150 million now. A lot of TKO, which owns WWE and which also owns other entertainment franchises, WWE and the UFC both have a lot of viewers overseas. And so my read on that situation is you're looking at generalized economic turmoil. You're looking at global trade and global commerce being upended. That means that companies that have more exposure overseas are going to see a big slide. They've seen something like 5 or 6% of their net worth wiped out.

At least someone on this list who has been very vocal about supporting President Trump's tariff policies are Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. This is what he said over the weekend, that the tariffs are a national security issue. That's what he said when defending them. He also said that they would stop other countries from ripping us off and that they will, quote, reset the power of the United States of America. But how have they exactly impacted his net worth?

Howard Lautnik, I mentioned earlier, East Asia is taking it on the chin. Howard Lednik really taking it on the chin. We estimate that he took something like $300 million off his net worth at least. And that was again on Thursday of last week, which is only after one day of this, of all of this. Some of his companies have slid even more since then. So we could be talking, we could be looking at even bigger numbers now. He's worth $3 billion. He's doing okay. You know, we're not talking about a big threat to his network, but we are seeing some shrinkage. And the reason why is his companies. You got an investment banking firm, you've got a brokerage firm. These are financial services companies. And they are pre exposed to broad macroeconomic trends. And so when you have a macroeconomic shock like these tariffs, that's going to hit financial services companies particularly. In fact, you know, if he wants some thoughts on tariffs, he should listen to Cantor Fitzgerald, his own company. You know, they just today say they have a very bearish view on the US Market and the reason why is because of tariff uncertainty.

So Howard Lutnick has been defending these tariffs on the media circuit. But how are the other billionaires responding? Is anyone speaking out against the tariff policy?

There a couple of billionaires that we've seen that were Trump supporters that have been speaking out against the tariff policy. Most of them are keeping relatively quiet. I think that's the, that's the general trend. Bill Ackman, who's not on this list, but who was a big Trump supporter, he came out this morning slamming Howard Lutnick and then actually walking those comments back a little bit later, you have another guy, Elon Musk, is another really good example. He's been very quiet on the terror front. He hasn't really said much. And my colleague John Hyatt had a piece about that, I think Friday or maybe on Monday. But Musk did actually tweet just this morning a video of Milton Friedman talking about the benefits of free trade. So if you want to read that as a statement on tariffs, you can.

So you're saying there's some more muted responses from these billionaire Trump donors. Has anyone, except from Howard Lutnick, obviously, aside from him, has anyone been supporting, supportive of the Trump tariff policies?

I want to shout out here Elizabeth Uline, she and her husband Richard, they co founded the company Uline, it's spelled a little differently, but they do all sorts of packaging materials and boxes and all sorts of an industrial supply, all that kind of stuff. And Elizabeth, the Ulines are very quiet, they're very media shy. Generally they don't talk a lot. But Elizabeth has spoken in the past about the need to reset America's trade relations. And at least on its face, that is what Trump said he's trying to do with all these terrorists is he's trying to reset the, the rules of the global economic order, which he claims has created a situation where America is being ripped off. So the Ulans might be supportive. Now, I don't want to speak for them. They didn't comment for this article and they haven't spoken directly about these tariffs as far as I know. But that's one area where he may have some support among some of his billionaire governors.

I know that you said President Trump's top two billionaire donors, they've been hit the hardest in part because of their business in China. Based on what you're seeing, are there any other trends, what other industries on this list are you seeing that have been hit the hardest?

Industries that I'm seeing. And I went and I looked at, I want to pull the data from the stock market today. Just so I had some updated figures, the biggest slides by far. You're looking at the tech industry. Elon Musk, right, is a good example there. You're also the financial services sector is really getting hit hard by in the recent market turmoil. I think one of the interesting sectors that is also getting hit hard is the industrial sector of the United States. And you might say, wait a second, you know, tariffs are supposed to support manufacturing and physical industry. Why would the industrial sector, why would their stocks be declining? I would think that they'd be going up because they're going to have these protections against foreign competition and that kind of thing. It turns out a lot of American industry, they import a lot of things from overseas. They import raw materials and they import, you know, the components that they then turn into final products. Talk about the car industry, you talk about the steel industry. Go to any of these industries.

There's a lot of interconnectedness tied into this and so a lot of them are actually suffering as well. Kyle, is there any other billionaire that's on this list that you want to touch on? You want to tell their story? You want to talk about how these tariff policies have been impacting their fortunes?

I think Paul Singer is actually an interesting shout out here. And I find him particularly interesting because back in 2016, he was at a, he was at an event in Aspen and he was not a particular fan of Trump at this point. And he said, oh, my God. The thing I'm most worried about for, for a, you know, Trump as president, potentially this was before Trump became elected president was tariffs and trade policy. And I really think that if he really says and does, if he does everything that he says, we could see a global depression. And he said that in 2016. Now, Singer came around to Trump over the years. Trump wasn't quite as protectionist in his first term as he said he was going to be on the trail. I'm wondering if Singer is having second thoughts now. I would love to talk to him, pick his brain about that.

Ever since President Trump unveiled his tariff policy on April 2, on liberation day, the markets have plummeted, plunged globally. People have been really outspoken against this. Economists have said, hey, we are inching closer and closer, dangerously close to a recession. Even people who have been outspoken in support of Trump in the past, like people like Barstool Sports's Dave Portnoy, have said, hey, the tariff policies have really impacted my net worth here. I've had millions wiped out in a single day. But the person who announced the tariff policies, President Trump, he himself is a billionaire. So I am curious, how have his own tariff policies impacted his fortune?

Ashton, and it's a little hard to get an exact answer here. Most of President Trump's fortune is tied up in the combination of his old real estate empire. He's got a lot of cash from his recent crypto ventures. And then he does have this social media company, djt or Trump's, you know, true social Trump media technology company which trades under the ticker DJT. And when we published our article last week, DJT was only down about 2%. It was, was beating the rest of the market, which was down 5% or more on that day. Now, I will say that has changed since then. DJT is down 12%, which is more in line with the rest of the market. So, and I'm saying that's 12% from the pre tariff, pre tariff times. So his, his, his fortune is absolutely taking a hit. He owns a lot of shares in djt, and they are down quite a bit. That said, he's got an enormous amount of liquidity from his crypto dealings, which are things that were a little bit harder to track. And so the president's going to be just fine from a financial perspective because of these tariffs.

Kyle, we are certainly watching the markets closely as they still are impacted by tariffs and the tariff news. And I hope you come back on and join me once there are developments and updates. Kyle Khan Mullins, thanks so much for joining me. Always great to talk to you. Brittany, thanks again for having me on.

ECONOMICS, POLITICS, BUSINESS, FINANCIAL IMPACT, BILLIONAIRES, TARIFF POLICIES, FORBES