Here’s a particularly stupid act of Trumpian stupidity.
Back on January 4, 2018 Trump congratulated someone (I have no idea who) when the Dow exceeded 25,000 points for the first time.
Traditionally, Presidents don’t tout the rising of a stock market because the market can be unpredictable and exceptionally fickle. Attach your success to a rising Dow, and when market turns south, the implications are obvious:
You suck.
Also, the economy is far too complex for a President to credit himself for any short term rise in any index.
Every President before Trump has understood this and avoided taking credit for any short term changes in the market lest they end up looking stupid and ineffective.
Case in point:
On January 30, 2019, almost exactly one year after that first tweet about the Dow exceeding 25,000, Trump once again tweeted the news that the Dow had exceeded 25,000. This is because between last year’s tweet and this year’s tweet, the market had fallen considerably and spent the end of 2018 climbing out of the hole.
Essentially, what Trump did was point out that within the previous calendar year, the Dow had failed to grow at all.
In other words, he sucked.
In fairness, Trump probably didn’t realize any of this because he knows nothing about economics, nor does he seek the advice of economists or even invest in the market.
He’s simply an ignoramus when it comes to economics.
In fact, had he taken the $60.7 million that his father had given him (not the $1.5 million dollars that Trump claimed for years) and invested it in a simple index fund, Trump would be far wealthier than he is today and wouldn’t have needed to pursue a Trump Tower in Moscow throughout the campaign while lying about it to the American people again and again.
