Branson was speaking alongside Virgin chief executive Shai Weiss as the carrier marked the start of flights to Saudi capital Riyadh, and announced plans to launch a Seoul route next spring.
Of Trump’s tariffs, Branson said: “An unsettled world is not good for anybody, I hope it calms down. Tariffs have done a lot of harm – we were on the verge of a complete meltdown two weeks ago."
He blamed the Trump administration directly: “I don’t think it’s 90% of Americans," he said. "I think it’s a fairly small elite around Trump. I don’t think he’s carrying the vast majority of Americans in what he is doing. It’s the unpredictability that’s so awful for everybody around the world."
However, he added: “We’ll manage. It was such a pity because everything was going so well until a few months ago – our airline, our cruise ships, were booming. They are still OK, but you feel if he continues, he is in danger of doing so much damage in the world."
Branson’s comments came hours after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the US would be hardest hit by Trump’s tariff policy, revising down its US growth forecast this year from 2.7% to 1.8%. It has also cut its projection for the UK.
Despite this, Branson said UK business was “good”. “I’m sure a very strong pound is helping," he said. "The weak dollar has weakened fuel prices in the airline business. You want a strong pound and weak fuel prices. We have both.”
Weiss also said there was an upside to the current economic situation with a strong pound and weak dollar, but admitted: “It’s hard to predict how Q3 and Q4 look right now.”
He said 60-70% of Virgin Atlantic’s capacity was to the US, but that there would be no adjustments to that. Branson also noted the US “almost seems to have jumped sides” on the Ukraine crisis.
