Billionaire Ray Dalio is worried Trump’s tariff war could spark ‘something worse’ than a recession

Ray Dalio, billionaire investor and founder of one of the world’s largest hedge funds, warned that US President Donald Trump’s tariff war has put the country near a recession and said he’s worried “something worse” than a recession could come.

Billionaire Ray Dalio says President Donald Trump’s tariff war has helped push America close to a recession — or perhaps even “something worse.” “Right now, we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession,” the founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this isn’t handled well.” Dalio, who correctly predicted the 2008 financial crisis, is part of a growing chorus, including major Wall Street banks, worried that tariffs could hamstring the US economy, the world’s largest. “If you take tariffs, if you take debt, if you take the rising power challenging existing power, if you take those factors and look at the factors, those changes in the orders, the systems, are very, very disruptive. How that’s handled could produce something that is much worse than a recession. Or it could be handled well,” he said. Dalio added that whether tariffs are implemented in a “stable” way or a “chaotic and disruptive way” makes “all the difference in the world.” But, so far, the way Trump has pursued his tariff plan — designed to reshore manufacturing to the US and boost jobs and tax revenue — has been “very disruptive,” Dalio said, adding the tariffs are “like throwing rocks into the production system.”