David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22nd, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Don’t mess with DJ D-Sol — Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon’s stage name when he’s rocking the clubs in his other life as a DJ.
U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Goldman on Tuesday for predicting that tariffs would push up inflation, and said Solomon “should go out and get himself a new Economist or, maybe, he ought to just focus on being a DJ.”
In response, Goldman defended the results of its study, according to a CNBC interview with the bank’s economist David Mericle.
“If the most recent tariffs, like the April tariff, follow the same pattern that we’ve seen with those earliest February tariffs, then eventually, by the fall, we estimate that consumers would bear about two-thirds of the cost,” Mericle said.
Goldman, in fact, is not the only Wall Street bank putting forth this view.
UBS senior economist Brian Rose wrote that “the downward trend in core inflation has been broken as tariffs start to feed through into retail prices,” while Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase, said in a note that tariffs could “add 1-1.5% to inflation, some of which has already occurred.”
Of course, a consensus view does not mean predictions will come true. Recall how economists were all but certain a U.S. recession would happen in 2023 — only for the economy to grow 2.5% that year.
In any case, if Goldman — and economists from other banks —is proven wrong on tariff-driven inflation, and Trump, in a hypothetical scenario, manages to somehow push Solomon out of his position, at least DJ D-Sol will still be out there spinning records.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report
What you need to know today
And finally…
Apple CEO Tim Cook (R) shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on August 6, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
How Big Tech is paying its way out of Trump’s tariffs
Top tech executives are at the forefront of a recent swathe of unprecedented deals with U.S. President Donald Trump. In particular, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, as well as Apple, have struck agreements with the White House.
“The flurry of deal-making is an effort to secure lighter treatment from tariffs,” Paolo Pescatore, technology analyst at PP Foresight, told CNBC by email. Big tech companies can “ill afford to fork out on millions of dollars in additional fees that will further dent profits as underlined by recent quarterly earnings,” Pescatore said.
— Sam Meredith