A White House spokesman claimed on Tuesday that President Trump has not focused on the stock market, despite his repeated praise for Wall Street’s post-election rally.
A White House spokesman claimed on Tuesday that President Trump has not focused on the stock market, despite his repeated praise for Wall Street’s post-election rally.
“Obviously the president did tout the stock market, but I would hardly say he focused on it,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said during a Fox Business network appearance.
The president has tweeted more than a dozen times about rising stock prices since last December.
“The Fake News Media barely mentions the fact that the Stock Market just hit another New Record and that business in the U. S. is booming…but the people know! Can you imagine if ‘O’ was president and had these numbers – would be biggest story on earth! Dow now over 25,000.” Trump tweeted last month.
But the White House has made it clear that Trump should not shoulder the blame for the recent losses on Wall Street.
“No question the president was involved and responsible for the increase in the stock market, but also in the overall economy,” Gidley said Tuesday.
The spokesman accused media outlets of ignoring the market’s gains over the past year, only to focus on stocks once they went south.
“Where were they when it was going up?” he asked. “They didn’t say a word about that. So, they’re trying to discredit this president and his economic prowess and what he’s been able to do.”
U. S. stocks dropped sharply on Monday, extending a massive sell-off on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 1,100 points on Monday, the largest one-day point loss in its history. The Dow had a volatile open on Tuesday, dropping more than 500 points before quickly recovering to erase most of the losses.
Past presidents have refrained from talking frequently about the stock markets in order to avoid being tied to their performance.
“Good time to recall that in the previous administration, we NEVER boasted about the stock market — even though the Dow more than doubled on Obama’s watch — because we knew two things: 1) the stock market is not the economy; and 2) if you claim the rise, you own the fall,” tweeted Jay Carney, a White House press secretary under President Obama.
