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Trump Lauds ‘Tidal Wave of Good News’ While Dow Plummets
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Dow drops 1,175 points, steepest drop in more than six years
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Major U.S. stock indexes erase gains for the calendar year
Here's Why U.S. Stocks Are Plunging
Stocks plunged the most in more than six years on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down 1,175 points. During Trump’s speech at a Cincinnati-area manufacturer, the Dow was down 1,597 points at one point.
Trump often boasts about the stock market in speeches -- “how’s your 401k doing?” has become a favorite refrain. But he didn’t mention the market during his remarks on Monday at Sheffer Corp., a factory in Blue Ash, Ohio, where he recounted “a tidal wave of good news” about the economy -- even as stocks tumbled.
“Stock markets go up and down, so it’s not a great bet for long-term political success,” said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University.
Though the Dow and the broader S&P 500 are now down for the calendar year, U.S. stocks are up since election day, the Dow rose more than 25 percent last year, unemployment remains low and gross domestic product has increased every quarter he’s been in office.
“Your paychecks are going way up,” Trump said. “Your taxes are going way down.”
Aboard Air Force One
The TV in Air Force One’s board room is usually turned to Fox News, but when White House staff boarded the plane after Trump’s speech, the network was broadcasting a red chart illustrating the market decline. Aides turned it off.At 4:46 p.m., Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin -- who returned to Washington with Trump, along with tax policy adviser Shahira Knight, Representative Jim Renacci and Senator Rob Portman, both Ohio Republicans -- approached the press cabin. He waved off questions about the stock market and insisted that Fox News, which covered the market downturn throughout the flight, had remained on the TV.
It hadn’t been. Aides only turned it back on toward the end of the flight.
Trump spent part of the flight talking with Portman, Mnuchin and senior adviser Stephen Miller and was in good spirits, aides said. As the plane approached Washington, the National Security Council’s chief of staff, Keith Kellogg, fetched a bag from the galley. “At least it’s not an air sickness bag,” he joked to reporters.
Later the White House issued a statement drawing on a familiar Washington strategy for addressing market downturns. Like George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and even Herbert Hoover in their own moments of market distress, the Trump team struck an upbeat note, trying to shift the focus to economic “fundamentals.”
“The President’s focus is on our long-term economic fundamentals, which remain exceptionally strong, with strengthening U.S. economic growth, historically low unemployment, and increasing wages for American workers,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement after the plane landed. “The President’s tax cuts and regulatory reforms will further enhance the U.S. economy and continue to increase prosperity for the American people.”
Tax Overhaul
Trump told workers at the factory that the Republican tax overhaul “set off” a wave of favorable economic news. He cited a commitment Apple Inc. announced in January to invest $350 billion in its U.S. operations and also lauded bonuses some companies have given workers since the tax overhaul was passed.Trump has sought to highlight companies that have doled out employee bonuses and raises, citing the tax cuts as the reason, White House aides said. Four corporate chief executives, each of whom paid employees $1,000 bonuses, were at the Ohio event: Jeff Norris of Sheffer; Greg Carmichael of Fifth Third Bancorp; Christopher Irion of e-Cycle; and Matt Schron of Jergens Inc.
The event was the president’s second day trip to promote the GOP tax overhaul he signed in December and his third visit to Ohio since taking office. He visited a bellwether voting district in western Pennsylvania last month.
First lady Melania Trump traveled with the president to Ohio to pursue a different agenda. She visited a children’s hospital in Cincinnati and participated in a briefing with physicians on opioid addiction.
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