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At 10 am MAGA called Trump a genius: By 4pm the S&P 500 was near a 20% decline since mid-Feb [1]
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Date: 2025-04-08
"Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst." ― Voltaire, Candide
Ignoring the bad. How MAGA spins the news
Early in the day, the MAGAs looked at soaring stock markets and pronounced their boy Trump was an economic genius. His spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, announced that , "President Trump has a spine of steel and he will not break." Conveniently short memories had forgotten the bloodbath of the last three trading days.
Here are some other farcical claims from Leavitt, the Trump administration's version of Baghdad Bob:
"Countries are falling over themselves to reform unfair trade practices and reopen their markets to our country."
" These countries greatly respect President Trump."
" President Trump has a spine of steel and he will not break."
" America will not break under his leadership."
" By supercharging American manufacturing, the president is already delivering on his promise to usher in an economic golden age for our country. "
Nice try. By the close of play, the markets had collapsed again. Traders recalled that Trump is a fiscal illiterate with rocks for brains. They must have also remembered that the Mar-a-Lago moron is an inveterate liar. His cabinet are cheerleaders for his delusion. And being stubborn when you are wrong is no virtue.
How reputable news reported the story
This is how the Washington Post reported it in a piece headlined:
Stock rally fizzles, with S&P 500 nearing bear market The S&P 500 index closed down 1.5 percent, bringing its total loss since mid-February to almost 20 percent — nearing a bear market.
WaPo gave some details.
The S&P 500 jumped nearly 4 percent in the first hour of trading, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that nearly 70 countries had approached the United States about negotiating over trade barriers. The president fueled the upbeat mood with a subsequent social media post, describing a "great call" with South Korea's acting president about a potential bargain. But the market rebound soon fizzled.
Yahoo Finance confirmed the reversal and subsequent carnage. It reported :
US stocks tumbled in afternoon trading on Tuesday after the White House said it plans to move forward on a threat to add a 50% tariff on Chinese goods in a move that would bring the overall tariff rate on Beijing to 104%. That tariff rate will go into effect at 12:01am ET. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) each reversed gains of over 4% to fall around 1.8% and 2.2%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slid 1%, falling about 400 points. Earlier in the session, the index had added over 1,300 points.
They used numbers to report facts, which news organizations should do if they are legitimate. Sadly, not all media sites that have "News" in their name are news organizations.
Which brings us to:
How Fox News buried the story and spun it anyway
On the partisan front, Fox News, as it always does, downplayed the economic devastation. This is how Trump's propaganda arm wrapped up the day's events (The reader will have to go to the fourth story and dig for the stock market results):
If the reader were to click on the story LIVE UPDATES: Dow slides 300 points after concerns mount, they would see this headline:
Even 22 minutes after the markets had closed down — and Fox's own charts showed the decline — the headline still claims, "Stocks jump." Is it Orwellian or Alice in Wonderland?
MAGAs are lost to the cult. But elections are won in the middle
It is easy to lie to people who want to believe. The problem for the administration is that not enough Americans are in the cult. Trump had what enough flippable voters wanted in 2024 to get elected. However, Trump's swing voters are, by definition, capable of switching to the Democrats in 2026. They, unlike the MAGAs, will not ignore reality.
If Trump and his team of sycophants keep up the happy talk, the only way Republicans will win elections is if they fix them. Or get rid of them.
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