Jack Bogle, a hero of Warren Buffett and a lifetime Republican, has told the BBC that President Donald Trump's plan to grow the U.S. economy by 4 percent a year is probably "not even possible for anybody."

The founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group critiqued several strands of Trump's policy mix during a wide-ranging BBC interview this week. Most notably, he said the president's campaign promise for the American economy seemed fanciful.



Jack Bogle Mark Lennihan | AP

"Anybody that wants to make the U.S. economy grow at 4 percent a year in real terms has a big job to do. I don't think it's even possible for anybody," Bogle said. He also said administration rhetoric over regulation was a concern. "I think reducing regulations is a reasonable thing to do if you do it the right way, but eliminating regulations is some sort of madness." And highlighting that he himself is the child of an immigrant, Bogle questioned the trade and border policies emanating from the White House. "I think increasing trade barriers is the wrong way to go for business," he said. "And I'm not making a political statement here, the economics of cutting back on immigration is extremely harmful in the long run for our economy."

Bogle was born in 1929, the same year as the Wall Street crash, and continues to invest after 65 years in the business.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak aboard the pre-commissioned USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier in Newport News, Virginia, March 2, 2017. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images