November 12, 2018

Donald Trump’s Delusion du Jour: Blaming House Democrats for Sinking Stocks

Wrong again.

Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Days after threatening House Democrats who plan to investigate his administration, Donald Trump leveled a new, baseless claim against his rivals in Congress.

While the Dow Jones Industrial Average did drop more than 400 points as of 11:40 a.m. on Monday, analysts pointed not to politics, but the technology supply firm Lumentum Holdings Inc., whose stock plunged by more than 25 percent after revising its second-quarter revenue estimates downward. Apple, which is Lumentum’s largest client, also saw the value of its stock tumble on Monday. 

Experts have blamed recent market volatility more on Trump’s own economic policies than the prospect of Democratic oversight. His trade wars with China and with traditional allies such as Canada and Mexico have rattled investors while the result of the midterm elections, which handed the House to Democrats and firmed up Republican control of the Senate, aligned with nearly all major predictions from pollsters. 

The president’s Monday-morning tweet baffled some market observers and journalists, including Business Insider co-founder Henry Blodget and Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel.

Fact-free attacks on the newly empowered House Democrats have been part of Trump’s standard operating procedure for the past week. A day after the midterms, he threatened to retaliate against Democrats by investigating them in the Senate. “Two can play that game!” he tweeted. During a press conference later that day, he spoke of adopting a “warlike posture” if Democrats target his family and personal business dealings.

In using the phrase “presidential harassment,” he appears to be drawing from the playbook of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who used that phrase to warn Democrats that a strategy of intensively investigating the White House could backfire. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the presumptive chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has said his panel will focus their attention next year on Trump’s alleged ties to Russian money laundering and his attacks on media outlets such as the Washington Post and CNN. Acquiring Trump’s tax returns is another top Democratic priority. 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate