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Biden has long avoided publicizing stock market gains. Now he can’t resist.
President Joe Biden spent his first years in office trying to reverse a Trump-era hallmark: publicizing (and taking credit for) every time the stock market reached a new milestone.
But new market highs in recent months and the opportunity to attract Donald Trump in an election year have simply proved too tempting to resist.
The most recent example was the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) closing above 40,000 for the first time last week.
The Dow Jones reaching the milestone on Thursday and closing above it on Friday generated a flurry of comments in Biden’s world. It closed just under 40,000 on Monday.
The marker was noted in campaign press releases until White House social media accounts to the White House press conference.
President Joe Biden gives a thumbs up during a trip to San Francisco in 2023. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images)
“Record stock market highs under President Biden are good for retirement accounts and household wealth and that’s just a fact,” noted White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. On thursday.
She laid out her thoughts in response to a question and argued that the stock rallies were proof that Biden’s economic plan was working.
Stock market watchers and economists often point out that market movements in a given week or month often have little to do with the occupant of the Oval Office. The recent acceleration, for example, is largely attributed to a cooler inflation reading across the economy.
Biden also has a long way to go to reach Trump’s levels in terms of stock market experts. The former president seemed to comment on every stock market milestone throughout his 4-year term in office.
Trump also followed a high speed of comments since leaving Washington, with his opinion changing drastically depending on the ups and downs of the market. In recent years, Trump has sometimes taken credit for market rallies and also for predicting declines because of Biden.
But Biden is increasingly emulating Trumpian patterns with comments in recent weeks that could be used against him if – as markets sometimes do – things get worse between now and November.
Biden’s evolution among stock market experts
Announcing market highs is a temptation for all presidents, but Biden highlighted it from the start as one of the countless ways he intended to distance himself from Trump and operate differently in office.
“I don’t see the stock market as a way to judge the economy, as my predecessor did,” he said. during a speech in July 2021.
Biden made a not-so-subtle allusion to the stock market’s strong gains in those months, but also added that “that’s not how I judge whether or not we have economic growth.”
The following January, with the market still rising, Biden could not resist a more direct comment.
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“By the way, the stock market – the ultimate measure of everything – is about 20% higher than it was when my predecessor was there,” he said. during a January 7, 2022 speech about jobs. “He achieved record after record after record under my watch.”
But this proved to be an ominous moment for Biden, as markets that January were poised for a turbulent year that saw the S&P 500 (GSPC) is down about 20%, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
Biden’s light propaganda once again irritated him and his advisers.
“We know that families are worried about inflation and the stock market,” Jean-Pierre recognized in June 2022 when she was pressed about her January comments.
Then, on September 13 of that year, Biden held a celebration at the White House for his recently enacted “Reducing Inflation Act,” but hit a snag that day when a surprise inflation reading began. the worst day for all three major averages since June 2020.
Jean Pierre was pressed again the next daycalling the shares just “a measure of how the economy is doing.”
Meanwhile, Trump spent much of 2022 comparing the recession to the Great Depression and accusing the US economy of collapsing.
Stocks, of course, recovered their losses and ended 2023 in record territory again.
They reached these new highs just as an election year rematch between Biden and Trump began to take shape.
It was an irresistible combination like Biden boasted about market highs in December and comments from Trump predicting a crash resurfaced.
Then, in recent weeks – when the Dow Jones surpassed the 40 thousand barrier – the floodgates opened.
Last week saw a flurry of releases. Messages have appeared on platforms ranging by Elon Musk for Meta Topics It is Instagram. Biden himself marked the moment on TikTok.
Posts celebrated new highs and resurrected old videos of Trump predicting a stock market crash under Biden.
“If he is elected,” Trump said in 2020, while pointing to the debate stage for Biden, in just one of many similar examples, “the stock market will crash.”
It was a beat from the Biden campaign that also stood out for its quantity. One campaign account even posted a series of videos from conservative outlets like the fox It is Newsmax reporting the good news to investors.
Trump himself, of course, might resist intervening – and try to take credit for himself.
He switched to the topic of markets during a recent speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Trump claimed a Wall Street insider named “Scott” – an apparent reference to former Soros Fund Management CIO Scott Bessent — told him that “the only reason the stock market is doing well is because Trump is leading in every poll.”
“He said it, but I said it too,” Trump told the crowd. “I believe that.”
Former President Donald Trump at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting on May 18 in Dallas. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Justin Sullivan via Getty Images)
Of course, it remains to be seen what direction the market will take in the coming months. Perhaps the only thing certain is that both candidates are likely to carry weight.
Ben Werschkul is the Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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