President Donald Trump continues to refuse to take reporter questions amidst his campaign’s quickly sinking fight against the election results, but this Tuesday, Trump briefly stepped into the White House press briefing room, where he delivered remarks about the stock market. This Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 30,000 for the first time. This development occurred shortly after the General Services Administration finally officially confirmed Joe Biden as the president-elect, clearing the way for Biden’s team to access certain federal resources. In other words, the stock market is rising as Trump is only more clearly on his way out.
Trump’s remarks lasted barely a minute. He said, in part, as follows:
‘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 despite everything that’s taken place with the pandemic. I’m very thrilled with what’s happened on the vaccine front. That’s been absolutely incredible. Nothing like that has ever happened medically, and I think people are acknowledging that, and it’s having a big effect, but the stock market’s just broken 30,000 — never been broken, that number. That’s a sacred number, 30,000 — nobody thought they’d ever see it… I just want to congratulate all the people within the administration that worked so hard, and most importantly, I want to congratulate the people of our country, because there are no people like you.’
And with that, he left, refusing to take any reporters’ questions. There is no particular evidence for his self-congratulatory claim that “nobody thought they’d ever see” the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 30,000. Trading volume has been steadily increasing for years, including before Trump took office. Watch Trump’s comments below:
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
What exactly was the point of Trump’s Tuesday spectacle? He sounded a bit like he was trying to garner support for his administration as if the election was still imminent — but the election is over, and Trump unequivocally lost. Trump also sounded a bit like he was trying to claim some kind of accomplishment for his administration on the way out the door — but again, critical developments in the process of getting him out of office preceded the stock market boost. After Trump left the White House briefing room on Tuesday, a reporter could be heard saying “well that was weird as shit.” Watch below:
After he leaves, listen for the reporter saying "Well that was weird as shit." pic.twitter.com/lrkjlEHx3h
— The Recount (@therecount) November 24, 2020
Millions of Americans don’t even have any stake in the stock market whatsoever. During a pre-election town hall event, Trump asserted that “stocks are owned by everybody,” which simply is not true.
