President Trump called out billionaire Warren Buffet on Friday, says the Berkshire Hathaway CEO made a mistake when he sold all his airline shares in April.
He said, “Warren Buffett sold airlines a little while ago. He’s been right his whole life, but sometimes even someone like Warren Buffett — I have a lot of respect for him — they make mistakes. They should have kept the airline stocks, because the airline stocks went through the roof today.”
Buffet’s company owned 8% to 11% of the ‘big four’ US carriers- American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. Their shares were up 18%, 9%, 5%, and 13% as of 12:40 p.m. ET on Friday.
Trump said this when he addressed the nation after the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that the economy added 2.5 million jobs in May. Stocks surged on the news as The Dow Jones industrial average was up 914 points.
Buffet exited the airlines last month where he revealed this at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting. He said that he was not certain that passenger numbers would rebound from the current pandemic in the next four years. Buffet also raised the possibility that airlines would be stuck with “too many planes.”
He pointed out that carriers would need to repay the government loans they received. As part of their bailout deals, airlines handed over warrants which the government can convert into shares in the future. Southwest and United have issued new shares.
Buffet said at the meeting, “The world has changed for the airlines. The future is much less clear to me.”
