Trump Has Some Thoughts on the Stock Market That I Don’t Understand

The president doesn’t seem to know how the markets function.

Melanie Bell/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday offered his first take on the recent turmoil on Wall Street, sending out a perplexing tweet that appeared to imply that investors (maybe) or the markets themselves (maybe) were willfully ignoring the positive economic news for which he frequently takes credit.

The tweet is the president’s first public reference to the Dow’s dramatic plunge of more than 1,000 points Monday. The drop, which followed major losses over the preceding week, happened to come as Trump was in Ohio delivering a speech touting the country’s economic health. 

Trump’s thoughts on the stock market Wednesday mark a sharp break from the president’s habit of boasting about rising stock prices. The tweet drew ridicule on social media:

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate