The Atlantic

The Problem With Taking Credit for a Soaring Stock Market

The gains President Trump is touting have been almost a decade in the making.
Source: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Presidents normally decline to take credit for gains in the stock market. The Dow Jones and the Standard & Poor’s 500 are simple reflections of market sentiment and short-term profits, after all. And what goes up has a way of inevitably going sideways or crashing down.

That has not stopped Donald Trump and his administration from celebrating the Dow hitting 22,000 for the first time this.” Now, he argues it is a reflection of corporate executives’ belief that things are looking up, thanks in no small part to him.

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