US president Donald Trump believes investor Warren Buffett made a mistake by offloading his stakes in America’s four largest airlines last month.
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump said: “Warren Buffett sold airlines a little while ago. He’s been right his whole life, but sometimes even somebody 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.”
Buffett had previously declared his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway had been wrong to change its strategy in 2016 and invest in airlines.
More: ‘I was wrong to invest in airlines,’ says Warren Buffett
Berkshire Hathaway had owned 11% of Delta Air Lines, 10% in American Airlines, 10% of lowcost carrier Southwest Airlines, and 9% of United Airlines.
Buffett was reported as saying at an annual shareholders’ meeting that “the world has changed” because of coronavirus.
He said the position the airlines are in was not their fault, but that the pandemic had changed the sector “in a very major way”.