Donald Trump’s Twitter Attack On Nordstrom Backfires

Donald Trump’s Twitter attacks on various major companies garnered tons of attention for their ability to impact company values into the billions. However, the president’s latest attack on Nordstrom appears to have backfired.

Why is the failure of Trump’s latest Twitter attack important? It lies in the fact his previous tweets against prominent companies affected stock prices significantly. Take for example Lockheed Martin, the makers of the F-35 fighter program. When Trump blasted the company back in December, Lockheed stock plunged.

According to the LA Times, “Lockheed shares took an instant hit, falling as much as $13.60, or more than 5%, to as low as $247.10 in pre-market trading. They eventually recovered and closed Monday afternoon at $253.11, a loss of nearly 2.5% from the Friday before.”

In a market where fractions of a percent change equate to millions of dollars in profit or loss, such a major upheaval can cost a company massively. LA Times further pointed out, “The early action in Lockheed Martin stock on Dec. 12 cut $3.8 billion from its market value, followed by a loss of $1.8 billion after the close of trading Thursday.”

All this simply from the Twitter count of a president-elect. And Lockheed Martin is not alone in in the Trump Twitter troubles. When Donald targeted Boeing over the expenses involved with building new Air Force One planes, their stock also dipped by about 1%, but was able to recover by the end of trading that day. Toyota also lost large sums when Trump fired at them over the planned expansion of factories in Mexico. IBT reports that thanks to Trump’s Twitter attack “the stock market still punished Toyota, whose shares dropped 1.69 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange during Friday trade. Its ADR shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange were lower by 0.57 percent during trade Thursday and fell another 0.42 percent after hours.”

So why is the Nordstrom Twitter attack important? This is one of the first times where a Trump Twitter attack on a company did not result in significant losses. In fact, Nordstrom stock value actually grew by about 4% by the end of the day, despite a fractional dip in value around the time of the Tweet. The net gain to the company’s value was around $450 million dollars. The fact Trump’s Nordstrom Twitter attack failed may partially defang the president’s future Tweets against companies.

One of the factors which makes this Twitter attack different from others launched by the POTUS is the personal nature of the Tweet. Instead of being on the side of the country, as could be argued regarding the other attacks, this assault was the direct result of Nordstrom dropping Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. The company claims the reasons were not politically motivated, but rather because Ivanka’s line was doing poorly.

Large numbers of celebrities have already come out with support for the retailer, putting their money to work. Rosie O’Donnell, Trump’s long-time nemesis, even published a Tweet of her own showing her recent purchase order.

shop nordstrom ! pic.twitter.com/lDwRnkIch9

— ROSIE (@Rosie) February 9, 2017

And as no surprise, SNL’s Aidy Bryant expressed her appreciation too.

The support Nordstrom is receiving is no doubt part of the opposition to Donald Trump. The movement, #grabyourwallet, started back in October after the allegations of sexual assault against Trump began. The movement has targeted not just Ivanka’s clothing line, but even retailers which sell her items.

So what are your thoughts on Trump’s Twitter attack on Nordstrom?

[Featured Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]