The stock market dropped by 200 points on Monday morning, an outcome that Republican President Donald Trump seemingly blamed squarely on Democrats winning the House of Representatives on Election Day last week, ultimately creating a split-government for the next two years in Washington.
Taking his opinions to Twitter, Trump made certain that everyone knew who he felt was at fault for the recent market declines, implying in his remarks that Democratic “harassment” of the president — presumably, the possibility that newly-elected Democrats may begin a barrage of investigations over the next two years — was to blame.
“The prospect of Presidential Harassment by the Dems is causing the Stock Market big headaches!” Trump wrote in a Twitter post on Monday morning.
Yet reporting from some media outlets seemed to suggest that other factors were at play for the drop seen in the market early this week. The Wall Street Journal , for example, reported that stock prices were going down due to anxiety about the future and direction of technology companies in the months ahead. Other factors weighing in on the drop could include oil production levels, as the kingdom of Saudi Arabia indicated that it was planning to lower its output soon, per reporting from Market Watch .
Trump claims the recent downturn in U.S. stocks is a byproduct of “presidential harassment” by the Democrats. https://t.co/w2d2X6dZLc
— CNBC (@CNBC) November 12, 2018
Experts noted Trump’s claims on Monday, and said that they were not congruent with what was actually going on. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B.Riley FBR, elaborated this position, per reporting from CNBC :
“Candidly, trying to pin this on the election and what might happen to the market is fraught with peril and lacking logic. Trying to say the pesky Democrats are going to try to point out malfeasance by the administration — everyone knows this only goes so far.”
Indeed, taking a look at the Dow Jones Industrial’s performance last week indicates that the initial reaction to the Democrats winning the House on Tuesday didn’t seem to impact markets in a negative way at all. Data from MacroTrends.net indicated that the Dow closed higher on the end of the week last Friday than its numbers had been on — or before — Election Day.
This is not the first time that Trump has suggested that Democrats in Washington winning one or both houses of Congress would hurt the economy. A week before the election, Trump sent out a Twitter message that suggested a win for Dems would hurt the stock market gains that had been made under his tenure.
“If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat,” Trump wrote. “They like the Venezuela financial model, High Taxes & Open Borders!”
