Trump has practically trademarked taking credit for a healthy economy even though credit is all due to Obama for pulling it out of a nosedive post-recession. He’s repeated the refrain on loop especially in the last week, after going ham on it during the televised state of the union speech.
Just a week later, Trump got a little taste of what we in educated circles who took high school English call “dramatic irony.” FOX News’ Shep Smith interrupted a Trump speech in Ohio bragging about a soaring economy to report on a record drop in the Dow Jones Industrial average.
The visuals really tell the story here.
Strong visual for Trump pic.twitter.com/vfl0Q9xl8e
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 5, 2018
For the full experience, watch the clip here. As Trump extols his own (made up) economic virtues, you can see the Dow watch on the lower right dropping precariously with every passing second.
Trump did at least have the foresight to avoid any mention of the actual stock market, which just closed out its worst week in years on Friday. Instead, he kept the focus on non-news like no kneeling at the Super Bowl, and other “good things” that happened.
Thanks to the historic TAX CUTS that I signed into law, your paychecks are going way UP, your taxes are going way DOWN, and America is once again OPEN FOR BUSINESS! pic.twitter.com/GISFbDDGXX
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2018
If the Dow keeps up the way that it has (or down), it’s only a matter of time before Trump defensively turns on it.
We’re about 12 hours away from Trump going all Papadopoulos on the stock market: “Barely know him. Got me coffee like, twice. Claims that he represents the economy as a whole are totally exaggerated.”
