Donald Trump sparked controversy by sharing a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, suggesting that he is “purposely crashing the stock market.” The video claims that Trump is leveraging economic instability to push cash into U.S. Treasury bonds, which he believes will force the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in May. The video argues that lower rates would allow for the inexpensive refinancing of trillions in debt while also weakening the dollar and reducing mortgage rates. It frames Trump’s trade tariffs as a “genius play” to compel companies to manufacture domestically and encourage farmers to sell more products within the U.S., thereby reducing grocery prices.
However, this rationale has been met with skepticism and disbelief, even among Trump’s allies and economic experts. Warren Buffett, who is falsely credited in the video as endorsing Trump’s moves, has actually criticized tariffs. “Over time, they’re a tax on goods,” Buffett said in March, pointing out that tariffs tend to hike consumer prices.
Trump’s controversial market crash strategy
Several of Trump’s supporters expressed confusion about the logic of deliberately crashing the stock market. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said, “I have no idea.
I didn’t know he had done it, and I have no comment because I literally have no idea.”
Marc Short, who served as Trump’s White House legislative affairs director, echoed this sentiment. “I saw some posts on social media recently making that crazy claim that Trump is crashing the stock market on purpose,” said Short. “I suppose one way to induce the Fed to lower rates would be to crash the market, but that doesn’t make it sound economic policy.”
A longtime Trump associate remarked: “In all the messaging guidance we received from the administration on this, not once do I recall hearing that ‘Trump is crashing the market on purpose’ is something we should say.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The stock market continues its downward spiral, with financial analysts and firms like J.P. Morgan Chase raising alarms about a possible global recession. As Fox Business’ Stuart Varney noted during coverage of the market sell-off: “That’s a probability, not a possibility.” Amid the economic turbulence, middle-class Americans are bracing themselves for a potentially lengthy period of financial hardship.
