President Donald Trump dismissed the recent stock market sell-off, stating, “You can’t really watch the stock market.” This is a shift from his previous stance of pointing to market performance as a reflection of his impact and activities. Over the past year, Trump claimed credit for stock market rallies, suggesting they reflected investor confidence in his electoral prospects. He blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for market downturns, asserting that a Democratic win in 2024 would lead to a market crash.
Trump’s remarks regarding the stock market include:
This is the Trump stock market because my polls against Biden are so good that investors are projecting that I will win, and that will drive the market up.
High interest rates and inflation are choking our great middle class. Our economy is bad, and our stock market is rising only because polls indicate that we will win the 2024 presidential election.”
“The stock market is, in a sense, crashing. The numbers are very bad.
This is Bidenomics.”
Trump emphasized that the stock market’s highs were partly due to investor expectations of his victory in the upcoming election. He praised market analyst Scott Bessent, who predicted that market performance hinged on Trump’s electoral prospects. When asked whether stock market indexes were a good barometer of his performance, Trump replied, “I think I’ve always said, you know, to me, the stock market is very — all of it together, it’s very important.”
Regarding concerns that his tariffs might harm the stock market, Trump stated, “Tariffs will make our country rich.
Since my election, the stock market has set records.”
Trump’s comments highlight his strategy of associating stock market successes with his leadership while deflecting blame for downturns onto his political opponents. As the 2024 election looms, his statements reflect his belief in the market as a measure of his potential electoral success and economic policies. President Donald Trump blamed “globalists” when asked why his tariffs appeared to be scaring the stock market.
Major stock indexes have dropped sharply this week as investors struggle to get a handle on Trump’s trade policies. When asked in the Oval Office on Thursday whether he thought it was his tariffs that were scaring the markets, Trump pinned the blame elsewhere. “Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won’t be doing as well,” Trump replied.
Trump’s changing market narrative
Trump did not elaborate on what those things were. “We’ve been treated very unfairly as a country,” he continued.
“We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries, and a lot of these are globalist in nature.”
It was not clear what was globalist in nature, but NBC reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering an overhaul of how it interacts with NATO allies. Later in the same press event, Trump again blamed globalists for the market downturn.
“I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.”
Over the course of an hour, Trump used “globalist” to describe people, companies, and countries, making it difficult to pin down specifically what he was talking about. The term has drawn condemnation from critics who say it is linked to stereotypes about Jewish people. The White House did not immediately reply when asked for additional context about Trump’s invocation of the term.
The Oval Office remarks came as Trump, just two days after imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, issued temporary exemptions for many goods coming into the U.S. from the two neighboring countries. Even as Trump seemed to reject the idea that his tariffs spurred a sell-off, he once again acknowledged that those duties could at least briefly cause disruptions. “There’ll always be a little short-term interruption,” he said.
The White House is defending President Donald Trump’s tariffs against the country’s top trading partners after the stock market experienced its worst day in 2025, with a sell-off that left the Dow down nearly 900 points. The administration maintains the tariffs are necessary to protect American industries and jobs, despite the immediate negative impact on the stock market. The tariffs have been a point of contention, with critics arguing they are disrupting global trade and harming international relations.
The economic instability combined with political uncertainties has many market analysts concerned about the direction the country is heading. The discussions around tariffs, in particular, underscore the tensions between protecting domestic interests and navigating a complex global economy.
Photo by; RDNE Stock project on Pexels
