David Solomon at the Invest America Roundtable hosted by President Donald Trump at the White House on June 09, 2025. Win McNamee/Getty Images
David Solomon is best known as the CEO of Goldman Sachs, but he also once had a side gig as a DJ. He retired from that hobby in 2023 to avoid unwanted media attention. Two years later, however, Solomon’s musical side gig has come back to haunt him from an unexpected source: the President of the United States.
President Donald Trump’s criticism came shortly after Goldman Sachs analysts released research detailing the financial impact of the administration’s tariff policy on U.S. consumers. “I think that David should go out and get himself a new economist or, maybe, he ought to just focus on being a DJ, and not bother running a major financial institution,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post yesterday (Aug. 12).
The report, published Aug. 10 and led by Goldman chief economist Jan Hatzius, found that U.S. consumers had absorbed 22 percent of tariff costs through June. The bank projects that figure will rise to 67 percent when all proposed tariffs take effect.
Solomon and Goldman Sachs “refuse to give credit where credit is due,” Trump said. “They made a bad prediction a long time ago on both the market repercussion and the tariffs themselves, and they were wrong, just like they are wrong about so much else.”
Goldman Sachs declined requests for comment from Observer.
This isn’t the first time Solomon’s DJ career has sparked controversy. Performing under the stage name “D-Sol,” he played at venues across New York, the Bahamas and even at Chicago’s Lollapalooza Festival. Solomon stepped back from public performances after the hobby was seen as a distraction from his leadership role at Goldman Sachs.
What do other banks say about tariffs?
Solomon has previously spoken out about Trump’s tariff policy, warning that the levies had raised concerns among Goldman Sachs’ international clients. Much of Wall Street has voiced similar unease. In April, after Trump announced “Liberation Day” tariffs, JPMorgan Chase said the odds of a global recession had risen from 40 percent to 60 percent. The following month, Citigroup analysts projected that global growth in 2025 would slow to 2.3 percent, down from 2.8 percent last year.
Trump, however, defended the policy in his recent post, claiming that “trillions of dollars are being taken in on tariffs.” In reality, Treasury Department data shows that U.S. customs duties totaled just about $28 billion in July.
The President also argued that large companies and foreign governments—not U.S. consumers—are shouldering most of the costs. Yet many corporations have warned that tariffs will ultimately lead to higher prices, and some have drawn Trump’s ire for saying so publicly. In May, after Walmart announced price hikes, Trump told the retailer to “STOP trying to blame Tariffs” and urged it to absorb the costs instead.
So far, U.S. businesses have borne most of the burden, said David Mericle, Goldman Sachs’ chief U.S. economist, during an interview with CNBC today (Aug. 13). But, he added, it will take time for companies to renegotiate import prices or pass costs on to consumers. Mericle also defended the bank’s research from Trump’s criticism.
“We stand by the results of this study,” said Mericle. “We’re just trying to do the best economic forecast that we can for our clients.”
