It’s about time somebody brought this up. Grandpa Syphilis is ruining the economy, the stock market, and all of our constitutional rights.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: There was a time when a Secretary of Defense getting caught leaking sensitive information could have, among other things, rocked the stock market and sent it into a downward spiral.
But the stock market has no time to worry about an unqualified and incompetent Secretary of Defense who may or may not have stopped drinking.
When Donald Trump is directly destroying the stock market in bursts of economic policy dementia, that have created the most uncertainty the american economy has ever seen, and I mean ever seen, because the uncertainty is based entirely on what will one person’s whims be tomorrow or the next day, or the next week, or the next month, or the next year? A year is the minimum planning horizon for economic planning and economic decisions in business or in our personal lives. And after destroying the stock market with tariffs that are actually illegal because Donald Trump has imposed them in violation of laws that control the president’s use of tariffs, Donald Trump decided that now would be a good time to attack the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, who became the chairman of the Federal Reserve when Donald Trump appointed him during Donald Trump’s first term as president. Biden then reappointed Jerome Powell. And on Monday, in the middle of the morning trading session on Wall Street, Donald Trump decided to attack the Republican chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, in a social media post that left the stock market reeling, under the expectation that Donald Trump was going to fire the chair of the Federal Reserve, or at least try to. And on Monday, Donald Trump said, “There can be a slowing of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates now.”
So there was the President of the United States doing two things that no president has ever been stupid enough to do before: one, predict a recession, and two, blame it on the chairman of the Federal Reserve, who he was publicly insulting.
The trouble for Donald Trump is everyone on Wall Street thinks Jerome Powell is good at his job, and everyone on Wall Street now realizes that Donald Trump is much worse at his job than they ever expected him to be.
Donald Trump’s tariff dementia was bad enough, but then came the trading day yesterday that the Wall Street Journal labeled “the fire Jerome Powell market rout.” That was the Wall Street Journal headline on Monday night.
Donald Trump was, in relatively polite language under the circumstances, basically being accused by the Journal and others of being a dangerous fool.
And the Wall Street news media for attacking Jerome Powell. And so today, the day after a disastrous day in the stock market, attributed 100% to a statement that Donald Trump made in the morning, Donald Trump — the man who made a living on TV saying, “You’re fired,” — Donald Trump, the president who has fired more cabinet members and more White House Chiefs of Staff than any other president in history, Donald Trump, who has fired people he is not legally allowed to fire. That same Donald Trump pretended that everyone at the Wall Street Journal was just crazy to think he would ever try to fire someone he’s not legally allowed to fire.
[CLIP]
REPORTER: You have no intention of firing Jerome Powell, because your economic advisor, kevin hassett, a few days ago, said that tou and people in the White House were studying this idea of possibly doing it before his term ends. Do you have any plans on doing that?
DONALD TRUMP: None whatsoever. Never did. The press runs away with things. No, I have no intention of firing him. I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates. This is a perfect time to lower interest rates. If he doesn’t, is it the end? No. it’s not, but it would be a good timing. It would be. It would. It could have taken place earlier. But no, I have no intention to fire him.
[END CLIP]
“I have no intention to fire him. I have no intention to fire him.” — saying it as many, as many times as he could say it. He could have said, I have no legal authority to fire him because he doesn’t. And Jerome Powell knows that, which is why Jerome Powell has said publicly that he knows he cannot be fired and would not leave if Donald Trump ever tried to illegally fire him. So there is one person in America more powerful than Donald Trump tonight, and that is Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. And Donald Trump knows it.