(Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
We should all know by now that skyrocketing stock prices don’t necessarily translate into a healthier economy overall, and it’s also important to recognize that a president acting alone doesn’t have much control over stock prices, especially in the short term.
That said, stock market gains are easily measurable and objective, which makes stock market performance an attractive metric when gauging a president’s economic strength.
Donald Trump has long been aware of the compelling power of stock market returns. He was banned for using Twitter to radicalize his supporters. Since the death of the former president who stormed the U.S. Capitol, Trump has sent dozens of tweets claiming he took credit for the stock market’s performance during his time in office.
Of course, the concept of “nuance” As foreign to Trump as the “movement” Or “laughter.” When the stock market was doing well in the early days of the Trump administration, Trump They have achieved similar or even better results under recent Democratic presidential administrations.He oversaw stock market crashes of varying severity. 2018, 2019and 2020President Trump has remained silent on the issue.
With stock prices hitting new records again, Trump turned his attention to his Truth Social platform, part of a public company whose stock price has plummeted. More than three years into the Biden administration, he is trying to take credit for the stock market rally.Trump recently said, Trying to suggest that the stock market isn’t that important after all.
In contrast to Trump, Joe Biden has carefully avoided making any comments about stock price performance since his election. In his first six months in office, stock prices hit 33 new record highs. (Trump incorrectly predicted a stock market crash when Biden took office.) Biden’s first 100 days It was the most powerful president for the stock market in at least the last 75 years..
As is typical, the stock market has seen multiple declines, recoveries, and surges as President Biden’s administration has taken hold. But the first half of 2024 has been particularly impressive. Stock market records have been broken repeatedly.
For example, in early February The S&P 500 closed above 5,000. It was the first time in history that other stock indexes quickly followed suit.
A few weeks after the S&P 500 hit its milestone, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Exceeded the all-time high of 40,000 pointsChipmaker Nvidia is doing well, too. The Nasdaq topped 17,000 for the first time. May 28th. No matter which major stock index you look at, new records and big fractional numbers were abundant.
This time around, the Biden campaign, if not Biden himself, appears to have overcome its wariness of the stock market.
On the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed 40,000, a Biden campaign spokesman said: To compare his boss’s stock market performance to that of Donald Trump (When the Dow hit 30,000 toward the end of his administration, Trump held a White House press conference to tout the feat.) As for the Dow passing the 40,000-point threshold, a White House spokesman made some brief comments about the new record, as well as comments made on White House social media accounts and in a Biden campaign press release.
Biden has been reluctant to directly comment on the stock market. He has previously said the stock market has many flaws as an indicator of the overall health of the economy. After a few incidents of privately commenting on stock price performance, he appears to have been hurt by a temporary market downturn. In the past.
But what does Biden have to lose here? You don’t need to be a pollster to say with confidence that almost zero voters are committed to voting for him as long as he remains silent about stock prices hitting new all-time highs.
Biden has not been praised for remaining silent when the stock market is doing well. This is one of Biden’s biggest political weaknesses.It is hard to imagine that highlighting the positive aspects of the economy would not benefit his campaign.
The stock market has retreated from some of its recent records and there are clearly more ups and downs to come before the November election, but the Biden campaign has finally broken its silence about the stock market’s strong performance — one Trump tactic the Biden team cannot ignore any longer.
Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigation attorney. Debt-free college student (affiliate link). He teaches legal writing, writes for various publications, and makes his financial and scientific knowledge both his job and his pleasure. Any opinions he expresses are probably pure gold, but they are still entirely his own and should not be attributed to any organization he is affiliated with. In any case, he does not want to give the credit to anyone else. Contact him at Email:.
