President Donald Trump left Washington on Thursday to fly back to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. By Friday morning, the stock market was in freefall for a second day in a row.
From his Truth Social page, Trump posted a video from a person going by the handle @AmericanPapaBear, claiming Trump is purposely tanking the stock market so he can get the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
MAGA followers were quick to call the strategy "genius" and compare it to playing chess while others are playing checkers. Another even claimed Trump was playing 3D chess.
BBC News economics reporter Faisal Islam wrote on X, "President just shared a video on Truth Social saying 'Trump Is purposely CRASHING the market' in order to lower US Treasury yields and the dollar. The Mar A Lago theory I wrote about two months ago, written by his chief adviser that said tariff chaos would lead to $ deal."
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After sharing the video he noted, The "Dow down another 1000 points… Obviously, RT are not endorsements but why is the President choosing to share this stuff? And if you are another country seeing this, how do you negotiate with this?"
Trinh Nguyen, an expert economist in emerging markets in Asia, posted on X that if true, Trump's actions would be akin to "Burning the house to cook steak."
"The amazing thing is that he thinks it is a win & so is his base," she continued. "Golfing now to enjoy his win of crashing equities to boost bonds or to lower bond yields. Of course, they buy this narrative. They don’t own anything. So you can’t lose if you don’t own anything or have anything of meaning to protect. Better to burn it all down so everyone is equally disillusioned. Wait a minute. Stalin did it. Make Russia Great Again."
"A LOT OF REACHING HERE" said software developer Mayowa A. Balogun, a self-described economics enthusiast.
Attorney Jeremy I. Senderowicz, who focuses on financial services, remarked, "Darkly amused by the emerging rationalization among some on this app that the tariffs are a move designed to push interest rates lower to aid the refinancing of our debt this year. That’s an argument that Trump is deliberately crashing the economy to lower interest rates."
"It reminds me of Alan Greenspan in the late 90s responding to Qs why he didn’t raise rates to choke off the stock market “bubble.” Paraphrasing his response: “if you’re asking if we can accomplish that, we most certainly can - but you really wouldn’t like the other effects.”
A commodities trader who didn't identify himself specifically posted on X, "Forcing farmers to sell here....! Those 70% of farmers who voted for him must be realllllly loving Trumps genius ideas!"
Another self-described, avid investor and analyst and Ph.D. historian quipped: "Well it’s confirmed… he’s purposefully liberating you from your 401(k) your IRA and soon your job."