CEO Pershing Square, Co-trustee @PershingSqFdn
New York, NY
Joined June 2017
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Premise:
Incentives drive all human behavior.
The corollary:
How to destroy a country:
A vast social security and support system that serves as a magnet for those who would rather not work.
An open immigration policy that does not screen immigrants to determine their ability and willingness to provide for themselves and their families.
An open immigration policy that does not screen for political and/or religious ideologies that are a threat to the country.
Economic incentives large enough to incentivize immigrants on the state dole to have large numbers of children, but insufficient for educated and economically productive mothers to be able to quit to raise a family.
The declining fertility of the most educated and productive women due to their delay to begin a family as a result of their desire and/or need to advance their careers, among other reasons, to live a life they deem consistent with their educational achievements and/or to repay their student debts.
Amnesty programs that give citizenship and voting power to illegal immigrants without consideration of their economic productivity or their threat to the country due to their religious or political ideologies.
The changing demographics and increased population due to the above factors.
The state responding to protests by increasing social support.
The continued failure to punish and hold accountable violent and looting rioters.
Government managed by a massive and growing unelected bureaucracy.
Government fraud, waste, and abuse contributed to ballooning budgets.
Anti-business legislation that makes it difficult for businesses to compete in a global marketplace being disrupted by AI, including restrictions on firing even poorly performing employees.
Overly burdensome, globally uncompetitive, corporate taxation.
Continuous increases in personal taxes to raise funds to provide for the rapidly growing welfare state.
The substantial majority of the tax burden levied on a small percentage of the population.
A growing percentage of the electorate paying no taxes and receiving welfare.
The introduction or threat of a wealth tax including the taxation of unrealized gains, i.e., taxes on paper wealth.
The flight of the most productive business builders and highest taxpayers to lower tax countries with lesser security concerns.
A growing percentage of the electorate voting for candidates that support increased welfare and laws favorable to, and/or that match the cultural and ideological needs and desires of a growing unproductive immigrant population.
The rapid rise in anti-semitism and inadequate efforts to address this hatred.
Increased borrowing by the state to fund the growing social burden.
Higher sovereign interest rates due to all of the above.
The resulting need to reduce expenditures to make the math work.
Increasingly violent protests that make life less livable for the productive and law abiding citizens leading to their accelerated departure.
And so on…
Bill Ackman retweeted
‘France stares down the abyss of history.’ My column in @TheFP on the descent of France. thefp.com/p/douglas-murray-f…
Bill Ackman retweeted
Je n’ai jamais été pro-israélien. Ni contre d’ailleurs. À vrai dire, je me fichais un peu de ce conflit.
Mais à force de voir des hordes de barbares tout saccager en arborant le drapeau palestinien, une pulsion étrange me vient : celle de penser que l’armée israélienne a peut-être compris quelque chose.
Bill Ackman retweeted
Giorgia Meloni has deployed the Italian Army in Milan against the barbaric foreign horde.
FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT. 🇮🇹
Bill Ackman retweeted
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu:
Macron called me on October 7. He said, "You know, we have to work for an immediate ceasefire and to solve this by diplomacy."
And I said, "No, no, Emmanuel. It's not going to be solved by diplomacy. These are monsters. These are neo-Nazis."
I said, "You know, Hamas is like ISIS. In fact, it's worse in some respects than ISIS, even worse than ISIS. And let me tell you, if we don't stop Hamas here, you'll see them on the streets of Paris."
And that's exactly what is happening right now.
Bill Ackman retweeted
MIT claimed that its actions against David were based on findings about the culture in his lab. The $6M verdict invalidates that explanation.
The jury awarded David $6M for damages caused by Knouse’s defamation. This means not only that false statements were made, but that those statements were proven to have caused a huge amount of damage. A causal connection between Knouse’s statements and the harm David suffered was established in court. The damage he endured came from the actions of MIT, Whitehead, and HHMI and their authority over him.
The implication of the court ruling is that those actions occurred because of the false statements, rather than for other reasons such as a vaguely defined lab culture.
A “toxic work environment” is a vague, slippery, often unfalsifiable slur that can be attached to anyone directing a laboratory or any group of people. Falling back on that label was a way to hide the real reasons for their actions from the public and look good to their base. Nobody likes an abusive boss, especially students who like to protest.
But I knew so many people who had worked under his supervision. They did not see him or his lab that way, even though they were not speaking publicly.
Some are saying that because MIT and Whitehead were not held liable, they are exonerated from this mess. Nothing could be further from the truth.
These institutions have sophisticated, eight-figure legal operations and substantial resources devoted to shielding them from liability. They know how to word damaging public statements while protecting themselves against defamation claims. They also know how to invoke attorney-client privilege, work-product protection, and other privileges to shield their dirty business from public scrutiny. Their ability to defend themselves legally should not be confused with institutional integrity.
Faculty employment is generally at will. That means an employer can fire someone for any or no reason. Tenure is a policy, not a legal right. Faculty are sold the promise of its security, but finding out what protections they can actually enforce when push comes to shove can take years and enormous legal fees. Sally Kornbluth, now MIT’s president, even admitted in court once that tenure does not carry the legal protections faculty believe it does (Shaughnessy v. Duke, see her deposition excerpts in the summary judgment materials). Employment law provides no remedy for many destructive decisions universities make.
Civil rights laws offer protection against discrimination, and pursuing those claims is often the only recourse faculty have in court against a university. But proving discrimination is difficult, especially for a scientist with a unique position and record. David pointed to Knouse as someone treated differently. She also ran a laboratory and had NIH funding, but I think the court ruled they were not similarly situated. He did have a more senior rank and a larger lab. So be it.
But discrimination law only addresses discrimination. You can treat people like garbage and run your institution into the ground without committing actionable discrimination. This is where public accountability must come into play.
The jury found that Knouse defamed David and unlawfully interfered with his livelihood. MIT, Whitehead, and HHMI held the authority, and through their actions, the false allegations against him became career-destroying consequences. That is why this verdict demands accountability from those institutions. They bear responsibility for the damage those actions caused.
Bill Ackman retweeted
Make no mistake: Letitia James is a defund-the-police politician. For her, having more criminals on the street isn’t a problem — it’s a policy.
She pushed for less police. She loves our catch-and-release bail laws. And she ignores the innocent people who keep getting attacked by repeat offenders, including our own cops.
New York needs an AG who supports the police, will fix the broken bail laws, and will lock up repeat offenders, and I’ll do just that.
Bill Ackman retweeted
The case of Professor David Sabatini stands as one of the most egregious examples of woke institutional excess, and its fallout extended far beyond the destruction of a single career.
At the Whitehead Institute at MIT, he ran a roughly 40-person lab conducting important work in molecular biology and cell signaling. That research was abruptly terminated, costing numerous students and trainees their ongoing projects and career momentum and resulting in an untold loss of medically significant knowledge - knowledge that had been funded by the public’s taxpayer dollars.
All of that was abruptly canceled when a false accusation of sexual impropriety was taken up by MIT's DEI-infected bureaucracy and a director who was on a feminist crusade to purge a leading scientist for what appears to be the crime of being a white male.
The court found that the relationship was consensual and the accusations that destroyed his career came only after he ended it and moved on romantically - buyer's remorse, in other words.
After five years of litigation, discovery and trial, a Boston jury has just awarded Professor David Sabatini $6 million in his defamation case against Kristin Knouse, finding that she defamed him and interfered with his career. The jury also rejected her counterclaims of coercion, harassment, and a hostile work environment.
But all of this is just the first step. Many people who were involved need to be held accountable. The institutions must make this right.
MIT, Whitehead, and HHMI still have questions to answer about their own handling. Investigations must look into the director of Whitehead who perpetrated this witch hunt. @NIH and @NSF should now act on the jury’s findings. Restore @DMSabatini's eligibility for federal grants. The institutional investigations that led to his removal and the later debarment effort were based on claims that a jury has now rejected as defamatory. There is no more reason to treat him as radioactive.
And last but not least, bless you, @BillAckman. When almost no one in science, academia, or media would touch this case, you acted and supported him, funding his new lab so that his important work on mTOR could continue. Thank you and Dafna at NYU for standing up publicly for due process when it was so costly. I knew many of his students and colleagues who could not speak out in support of him out of fear of retribution and professional ruin. Prof. Sabatini has said that you saved his life. It is not a hyperbolic statement.
Also, for every one of him, there are other men whose lives have been ruined this way. For things to change, high costs on the accuser must be imposed.
cc @DrJBhattacharya @regardthefrost
Dear President Kornbluth and Chairman Gorenberg,
Yesterday, as I am sure you are aware, a Boston jury unanimously found that @MIT professor Kristin Knouse defamed David Sabatini, falsely accused him of rape and sexual harassment, and tortuously interfered with his contractual arrangements including his tenure at MIT.
MIT and its tenure review committee relied on Professor Knouse’s statements when it took away David’s tenure and terminated him.
MIT's policies explicitly prohibit harassment, retaliation, and fabrication of claims. Falsely accusing a colleague of rape and sexual harassment and pushing for his termination under false pretenses are clearly violations of MIT policy.
In light of the unanimous findings of the jury after five years of discovery, many legal motions and countermotions by both parties, and a three-week trial in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston:
Is MIT going to take away Knouse’s tenure and terminate her?
If not, why not?
Is MIT going to restore David’s tenure, and apologize for firing him?
If not, why not?
In light of what has transpired in this grave miscarriage of justice, MIT has the opportunity and the obligation to right a serious wrong here.
At a minimum, the public deserves transparency into what actions MIT is taking in this case as taxpayers are major funders of MIT.
Sincerely,
Bill Ackman
Bill Ackman retweeted
Slash a woman on the face in the subway, get released without bail.
Arrested. See the judge. Released.
This is Letitia James’s lawless New York.
Time for a new AG.
nypost.com/2026/10/18/us-new…
Bill Ackman retweeted
Repeat offenders keep getting released onto New York’s streets.
The reason: weak prosecutions and weak laws.
The way forward is simple.
Bill Ackman retweeted
I’m furious and heartbroken to see my country like this.
I could be prosecuted for this, but so be it. It needs to be said.
Our empathy is killing us. I stand with MY people, and they’re not my people.
Share this. We’ve had enough, and time is running out for France.
Worth a watch
I wrote this description/warning of what is happening in the West. Please watch it and share it with others. @idicenter
Bill Ackman retweeted
BREAKING 🚨
Teachers baffled as low-income Parisian students return to class sporting brand-new Louis Vuitton and Dior backpacks.
Bill Ackman retweeted
French students frantically search Christian Dior for school uniforms after their school reportedly ran out of blazers ahead of parents evening
Bill Ackman retweeted
What we know:
1. She's a member of the French left-wing party and an activist, one of the biggest advocates for opening up migration to North African peoples.
2. She owns a small chic boutique in an upscale spot, she stood in her shop trying to save it from looting and theft telling them that she's a famous activist.
3. She told them I'm so-and-so, the activist for asylum, I'm with you, I've defended you and your entry and stay in France, they spat on her, knocked her down, and trampled her with their feet, good thing she's still alive.
4. And they looted the whole shop, losing all the struggle and work of her lifetime in a moment. Standing there stunned, not believing that these thieving, rabble-rousing, criminal, barbaric hordes are the ones she's spent her whole life defending, and advocating for them to invade her country and destroy it
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
La mujer de la fotografía es una manifestante que intenta impedir el saqueo del establecimiento. Ella no es la propietaria. Es un supermercado de la cadena Franpix. En el vídeo completo de puede ver.
instagram.com/reel/DenbGUyid…
Bill Ackman retweeted
CHAOS INC: A Fox News Digital investigation by @FoxNews Digital's senior editor of investigations @AsraNomani has identified 54 organizations behind France's escalating protests — a sprawling network of communist parties, revolutionary socialist groups, labor unions, Palestine-solidarity organizations and international media outlets working to transform grievances into a full-blown revolt against capitalism, government austerity and military spending.
Now, 28 communist and socialist youth organizations across 12 European countries are mobilizing for a coordinated November 20 strike under the slogan "Fight for Our Future, Not Their Wars," calling for walkouts, blockades, occupations and mass demonstrations.
Among the international amplifiers: organizations tied to Neville Roy Singham, a Marxist tech tycoon living in Shanghai, whose network includes Tricontinental and BreakThrough News, a New York-based outlet that published advance coverage of the weekend's mayhem in France.
Full story here foxnews.com/world/whos-who-i…
Bill Ackman retweeted
New poll out and James is only up 6:
🔵 Letitia James 51%
🔴 Saritha Komatireddy 45%
That’s basically half the lead she had last month.
People who actually watched the debate went hard for Saritha. Independents are moving her way too.
James has used the AG’s office for politics while crime and fraud keep hitting regular people. Saritha’s a former federal prosecutor who’ll actually do the job.
@sarithaforny has my support. Vote November 3. 🇺🇸
Bill Ackman retweeted
Crime. Homelessness. Fraud.
New Yorkers deserve better. Politics and personal vendettas shouldn’t come before public safety.
As Attorney General, I’ll make protecting New Yorkers my priority.
Bill Ackman retweeted
Paris wakes up after another night of rioting and looting.
The city looks like a war zone
So true.
After you are abandoned by a trusted institution and publicly shamed, the headlines and mobs eventually fade. What you are left with is isolation.
People who claimed to be your friends abandon you. Very few will say anything positive about you. People generally pretend you are dead. Others dismiss or worse take credit for your work and try to write you out of history. Vultures swoop in from every direction.
This is what happens when fourth-rate administrators make decisions affecting people’s livelihoods without concern for what they are doing to their lives. These are scientists who were among the best in the world at what they did. They passed up careers in pharma, finance, tech and administration that could have paid them vastly more for their skills.
When I was younger, people in my programs who gave up on science early went on to make fortunes on Wall Street, in biotech, and in Silicon Valley. Those who stayed pursued their passion for the love of it at the cost of millions of dollars.
When an administrator steps in and dismantles that life’s work, far more than a job is erased. Laboratories take years to build, and scientific problems take years to develop and eventually solve. Experiments, research materials, collaborations, and accumulated expertise cannot simply be restarted somewhere else. The field keeps moving while your work is stopped. The time lost is also the time lost that could have been spent making money - that part a court will never be able to figure out because juries are ordinary people not dedicated scientists.
Then comes the gaslighting. People assume it must have been your fault because an institution like MIT or Duke is supposedly so trustworthy and meritorious that it would never do this to someone who was not guilty. Institutional prestige is a substitute for examining the evidence.
I recently attended a meeting on academic freedome at MIT where Dorian Abbot’s name kept coming up as their fallen hero. They cited a cancelled lecture of his at MIT as their rallying cray. It was treated as an institutional catastrophe. It was insane. David was an afterthought among people supposedly concerned about the climate at MIT and self-appointed to change the culture there.
They simply believed MIT’s PR messaging that they have always been focused on merit despite some small missteps like the canceling of a controversial lecture. I had to point out repeatedly that MIT is not the MIT they attended 30–50 years ago. The priorities reflected in its newer hires and leadership have moved far from the scientific excellence they associate with it.
