President Donald Trump, who has bunkered very strongly since his electoral defeat earlier this month, made a surprise appearance Tuesday in the White House briefing room to credit himself for unprecedented gains in the stock market.
“The stock market’s just broken 30,000 — never been broken, that number,” Trump said in very short remarks that clocked in at about a minute. He was referring to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
President Trump: "I just want to congratulate everybody. The stock market Dow Jones Industrial Average just hit 30,000 which is the highest in history. We've never broken 30,000 and that's just despite everything that's taken place with the pandemic." pic.twitter.com/aKsXFqucfu
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 24, 2020
The President, who has largely failed to address the nation on how the country will grapple with surging COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, appeared eager to take the podium and credit his own administration for the market’s strength after largely shying away from making formal public remarks in the stinging weeks since losing his reelection.
“That’s a sacred number, 30,000, nobody thought they’d ever see it,” the one-term president said.
Trump has frequently claimed that markets would suffer dramatically if he lost reelection. Yet the record high has coincided with the formal start of President-elect Joe Biden’s transition to the role of commander-in-chief, after the General Services Administration chief finally allowed the process to begin late Monday.
“It’s the 48th time that we’ve broken records during the Trump administration,” Trump asserted, adding that he wanted to “congratulate all the people within the administration that work so hard.”
The sudden emergence from hiding may have been a direct effort by Trump to lay claim on the gains even as stock experts chattered that the record-high numbers were likely related to Biden’s transition and reports that he would nominate Janet Yellen for Treasury secretary.
Twitter erupted in response:
And now he is gone. Shortest briefing ever. https://t.co/V4IZsZStUY
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 24, 2020
As President Trump claims credit for the Dow jumping above 30,000, remember that he repeatedly asserted that he deserved credit for everything the Dow did from Election Day 2016 on. pic.twitter.com/cH4jz6NCiE
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) November 24, 2020
For the record, the Trump statement was 786 characters long. Meaning it could have been delivered in a three-tweet thread. https://t.co/MScrBzWlt5
— Sam Stein (@samstein) November 24, 2020
He’s taking credit for the bounce for the wrong reason. Dow jumped because he was voted out of office.
— Jamie Schler (@lifesafeast) November 24, 2020
Always a tweet….Trump just celebrated the Dow going over 30,000. But under his own standard, today's gain is due to Biden's WIN and the "euphoria of getting" Trump/Pence OUT. So congrats, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. https://t.co/AJ4yGdTGQk
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) November 24, 2020
