Trump took a jab at Warren Buffett for dumping the airlines. It might be payback for Buffett's attacks on his business career.

• President Trump called out Warren Buffett for selling his airline investments on Friday, saying the famed investor made a mistake.
• Trump likely enjoyed the moment, given Buffett endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and tore into Trump's business career ahead of the election.
• "I don't know anybody else that's had six bankruptcies," Buffett said at a Clinton campaign event.
• Buffett also slammed a Trump company that went public in 1995 and lost money for 10 straight years, saying that "if a monkey had thrown a dart at the stock page, the monkey on average would have made 150%."
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President Donald Trump took a jab at Warren Buffett for dumping his airline investments on Friday. He likely savored the chance to criticize the famed investor, given Buffett's past attacks on his business record.

"He's been right his whole life, but sometimes even someone like Warren Buffett — I have a lot of respect for him — they make mistakes," Trump said after the "big four" airline stocks rallied on Friday.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owned between 8% and 11% of American, Delta, Southwest, and United at the start of this year. However, it sold all of its airline shares in April after the coronavirus pandemic hammered passenger numbers and forced the carriers to borrow billions of dollars from the government.

The S&P 500 airline index soared a record 35% last week after American outlined plans to fly 55% of its domestic schedule in July compared to the same month last year, and the US economy shocked commentators by adding 2.5 million jobs in May. However, the index is still down more than a third this year.

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Buffett has blasted Trump in the past

Buffett's sharpest critiques of Trump came after he endorsed Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

During Berkshire's annual meeting on April 30 that year, a shareholder asked how a Trump victory might affect Berkshire's businesses given Buffett's political stance.

"That won't be the main problem," Buffett quipped, according to a transcript on Sentieo, a financial-research site.

Buffett escalated his attacks at a Clinton campaign event in August 2016.

He dismissed Trump's excuse that an IRS audit was preventing him from publishing his tax returns, saying he was also under audit. The investor proposed a meeting where both men would share their returns and field questions about them.

"You're only afraid if you've got something to be afraid about," Buffett said.

The Berkshire boss added that he "violently" disagreed with Trump's suggestion that America wasn't already great, and suggested the Republican candidate was arrogant to claim that only he could fix the country.

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"I don't know anybody else that's had six bankruptcies"

Buffett's most bruising assault was targeted at Trump's business career.

"I've really never known another businessman that brags about his bankruptcies," he said at the Clinton event. "I don't know anybody else that's had six bankruptcies."

The investor gave the example of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, which he said lost money for 10 straight years after Trump took it public in 1995. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 benchmark index more than doubled over the next five years.

"If a monkey had thrown a dart at the stock page, the monkey on average would have made 150%," Buffett said. "The people that believed in him, that listened to his siren song, came away losing well over 90 cents on the dollar. They got back less than a dime."

Buffett also slammed Trump for his infamous clash with Khizr Khan, the father of Humayun Khan, the US army captain killed during the Iraq War in 2004.

"How in the world can you stand up to a couple of parents who lost a son and talk about sacrificing because you were building a bunch of buildings?" he said. "I ask Donald Trump, 'Have you no sense of decency, sir?'"

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"I don't care much about Warren Buffett"

Trump responded to Buffett's comments in a Fox Business interview in August 2016.

"I don't care much about Warren Buffett," he said. The candidate also defended his business record, saying Atlantic City was "run down the tubes," and he successfully escaped the worst of it and "made a lot of money."

Unlike many of his other critics, Trump hasn't used Twitter to punch back at Buffett. He's mostly complained about how their bankruptcies are treated differently by the media.

"When Warren Buffett & others play w/ bankruptcy, nobody cares—when Trump plays the game, it becomes a big deal!" he said in November 2013.

"Why is it that when Warren Buffett uses the bankruptcy laws to his benefit, nobody cares, but with me they go nuts!" he tweeted a month later.

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Supporting the president

Buffett has largely refrained from criticizing Trump since the election. He underscored the need for Americans to unify behind their new leader in a CNN interview shortly after Trump's victory, adding that the new president deserved everyone's respect.

He did touch on Trump's bankruptcies once again in the interview, but also credited the real-estate mogul and star of "The Apprentice" with being "very good" at licensing and promoting his personal brand.

"I'm not in the business of attacking any president, nor do I think I should be," Buffett told CNBC in August 2017.