Trump's New Line of Attack on Harris: the Stock Market

Donald Trump and his campaign didn't waste time in coming up with a term for Monday's market sell-off—the "Kamala Crash." Trump sought to blame VP Kamala Harris for the rough economic day in a series of social media posts using that phrase, and he continued the theme throughout the day:

• "Stock markets are crashing, jobs numbers are terrible, we are heading to World War III, and we have two of the most incompetent 'leaders' in history," he wrote. "This is not good!"
• Context: Forbes notes that Trump has kind of a can't-lose habit of taking credit for the market when it's up and blaming rivals when it's down. Still, Trump's "calculated attempt at political marketing" here shows how important the health of the economy—and the messaging around issues such as inflation—will be in the run-up to the presidential vote, per the New York Times.

• Harris' problem: The sell-off represents the first real friction Harris has faced since President Biden withdrew from the race, per Politico. Yes, all kinds of complicated factors go into a market slide, but the big picture nonetheless represents a "tremendously huge problem" for her, says Democratic National Committee member William Owen. Simply put, "we cannot win if people think we're headed into a recession." Owen wants Biden and Harris to urge the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at its September meeting.
• Fox critic: Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto took Trump to task about all this. "The Donald Trump thing in the market amazes me," Cavuto said, per the Hill. "When they're up, it's all because of him and looking forward to him. When they're down, it's all because the Democrats and how horrific they are." He also pointed out that "three of the biggest of the top 10 [drops] occurred during his administration," adding: "Now, a lot of those were in the COVID years, I get that, but, you know, you either own the markets or you don't. It does confuse me."

(Markets were stabilizing on Tuesday.)