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(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s chaotic policies are spurring some investors to “sell America,” but Vanguard Group Chief Executive Officer Salim Ramji said he still believes in the underlying strength of the US economy.
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When asked if US exceptionalism has peaked for an upcoming episode of Bloomberg’s Wall Street Week, Ramji said: “Absolutely not.”
The view is increasingly at odds with a building consensus that the decades-long dominance of US investments is coming to an end.
Societe Generale SA head of asset allocation Alain Bokobza — who warned of weakness in US assets in September and reiterated the call in February — said Tuesday that the rotation out of US assets could last for years if Trump pursues a multifront trade war.
The S&P 500 has dropped about 10% on a total-return basis this year, briefly flirting with bear-market territory earlier this month as Trump’s back-and-forth on tariffs hammered almost every sector of the stock market. That volatility has rocked the US Treasury market and the dollar, subverting the assets’ traditional roles as havens.
While investors have been selling US assets of all stripes over the past several weeks, Trump’s trade policies won’t mark the end of the US economy’s financial dominance, Ramji said.
“We’re certainly seeing it in our flows,” said Ramji, whose firm oversees more than $10 trillion of assets. “We’re seeing it in our clients’ behaviors and in our own team’s investment beliefs.”
Vanguard’s exchange-traded fund lineup has absorbed almost $117 billion so far in 2025, the biggest haul of any ETF issuer, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Of that, $99 billion has gone to Vanguard’s to domestic-focused equity and fixed-income funds. Still, Vanguard continues to preach diversification.
“Clients always need to be balanced,” Ramji said. “We’ve been saying that for decades, in terms of the right mix between the US and international, the right mix between stocks and bonds.”
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