Stock Market Gives Trump Historic Thumbs Down

I love it. I absolutely love it.

Wait, that’s not true. And even if it is, I shouldn’t admit it, because people’s retirement funds, and thereby their livelihoods, are at stake.

But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t give me some pleasure to see Donald Trump saddled with what may well end up being the worst April for the Dow since the Great Depression.

Yes, I obviously got that factoid from The Wall Street Journal, which ran a front-page article Tuesday called… well, called “Dow Headed for Worst April Since Great Depression.”

Here’s the thing. A couple of things, actually. Trump looks at the Journal, because even as he considers it woefully insufficient in the fealty department, it’s still an overtly right-leaning publication. Also, Trump looks at the Dow, even if no one else does. Finally, Trump’s responsible (solely) for a ton of anxiety at household dinner tables around the country where, at least according to the two premier gauges of consumer sentiment/confidence, Main Street harbors an overtly cautious view on the outlook for the economy, and 401(k)s are down materially thanks to a series of unforced errors on the part of the administration.

So, yeah. While I’m sad for Main Street, I take some solace in the fact — and we all know it’s a fact — that Trump wakes up every morning sour at a stock market that’s rebuking him in the harshest possible terms, and thereby mocking his “legendary” business acumen.

The Dow’s down almost 10% in April, or nearly 4,000 points. The points are irrelevant. What matters is the percentage move, but this is a(nother) case where Trump’s penchant for “big league” numbers is backfiring. A 4,000-point Dow decline is a source of aggravation for a man who once measured presidential performance in Dow points.

Of course, when you’re Trump, it’s always someone else’s fault. As the Journal noted in their other front-page market story Tuesday, the White House is “laying the groundwork to blame Jerome Powell” for the economic downturn that’s now all but a foregone conclusion.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering (I actually was), the same Journal article cited Bespoke in noting that the S&P 500’s performance since Inauguration Day is the worst for any president ever.


 

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