Melanie Bell/ZUMA
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.
In the “old days,” when good news was reported, the Stock Market would go up. Today, when good news is reported, the Stock Market goes down. Big mistake, and we have so much good (great) news about the economy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2018
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:
It’s not me, it’s the stock market that is wrong https://t.co/GBveQDg678
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) February 7, 2018
the stock market is committing treason https://t.co/auf7JWc0OO
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 7, 2018
Tough call, but this may be DT's silliest tweet so far this year. https://t.co/vyXppakOtu
— John Cassidy (@JohnCassidy) February 7, 2018
