Republican presidential candidate Trump on Monday blamed Vice President Kamala Harris for the stock market’s sharp plunge, months after he claimed he was credited with the stock market’s then-record rise.
“Of course, there’s a serious downturn in the market. Kamala is worse than Crooked Joe,” Trump wrote in a post. truth society About Harris, the de facto Democratic presidential nominee.
The night before, as Asian markets fell sharply, the former president wrote: “The stock market is crashing. I told you so!!! Kamala has no clue. Biden is sound asleep. All of this is Caused by incompetent American leadership!
U.S. stocks fell sharply on Monday in an apparent reaction to recession fears that were sparked in part by a weaker-than-expected jobs report on Friday.
But in January, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index Trump said the stock price surged because investors believed he would defeat President Joe Biden.
“This is the Trump stock market because I polled Biden so well that investors predicted I would win,” he wrote on Truth Social that month.
The Harris campaign fired back Monday, attacking Trump’s economic record.
“Donald Trump has the worst employment record of any modern president, and he has witnessed the worst days in the history of the stock market while lining his own pockets throughout his presidency,” Harris campaign spokesman Amal Moussa said. American jobs are moving overseas “Middle-class families need stable economic management, not chaotic roaring lies. “
Trump’s comments reflected the political risks of tying the campaign to changing market behavior, Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi told CNBC.
“Throughout history, I think politicians have avoided trying to tie their wealth to the stock market as a signal of their policies or anything else because markets go up and down everywhere,” Zandi said.
“Former President Trump was the first to do this,” Zandi added. “I’m confused by this.”
During Trump’s presidency in March 2020, the S&P 500 experienced several sharp declines, including a 12% plunge on March 16, 2020, as concerns grew about the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. It was one of the worst declines in the S&P’s history.
Since Biden dropped out of the race in July and endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee, the former president has lost his lead in polls.
A CBS News/YouGov Poll The survey released Sunday showed Harris leading Trump by one percentage point in a head-to-head matchup with likely voters, a lead that was within the survey’s margin of error. The poll surveyed 3,102 registered voters from Tuesday through Friday.
As Harris’ early support surges, Trump is trying to tie her candidacy to Biden’s record, which some voters blame for the high cost of living.
As a result, Trump sought to frame Monday’s market meltdown and ensuing recession scare as part of a broader case against Harris’ economic record.
But Zandi said the market was in correction territory and Monday’s decline did not necessarily reflect the broader economic downturn that Trump described on social media.
“In my experience, the stock market will probably go up eventually,” Zandi said, noting that stocks are still up this year.
“So I want to say, what is a slump?”
When asked to comment on Trump’s post, the Harris campaign pointed to the vice president’s campaign speech in Atlanta last week.
Harris said in her speech that Trump “is going to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. He’s going to cut our investment in clean energy jobs. He’s going to end the Affordable Care Act.”
“Let’s go back to a time when insurance companies had the power to turn away people with pre-existing conditions,” the vice president said.
“Do you remember what that was? Children with asthma. Breast cancer survivors. Grandparents with diabetes. The state of Georgia has tried these failed policies before and we won’t go back. We won’t go back. We won’t go back. Back away.
—Additional reporting by CNBC Kevin Breuninger.
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