CNBC host Jim Cramer went nuclear on President Donald Trump over the cratering stock market as the commander in chief’s tariff deadline approaches, dishing out one of the worst insults Trump can think of.
The biggest round of Trump tariffs yet is set to hit on April 2 — what Trump calls “Liberation Day,” but the stock market appears to view more as Judgment Day. Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered somewhat on Monday, the index lost nearly 1200 points in March, and futures were headed south again overnight.
On Monday night’s edition of CNBC’s Mad Money, the host delivered a devastating assessment of Trump as the “one man standing in the way of a great economy” and finished with what Trump would surely consider a deeply insulting kill shot — comparing him to the late President Jimmy Carter:
We have declining inflation, except the president’s putting on inflationary tariffs.
We have incredibly low unemployment, except where it’s caused by the Trump administration.
We have a market that was doing extremely well last year, until the Trump Administration sowed the level of uncertainty that I can’t recall any time since — Are you ready, Ski Daddy? — Jimmy Carter.
Which is the last time people were really worried about inflation, about stagflation, okay? Back then, stagflation was real.
Now, Jimmy Carter, curious benchmark, break out the cardigan sweater. I know it’s a brutal comparison. You think I did it idly?
I cannot think of another president in my lifetime who could knock down the stock market simply by opening his mouth than Jimmy Carter. Eureka! I have found him!
So let’s look at it this way: Everything about this economy is good. Everything, everything, except one thing. We have a president who’s very angry at everyone, except Vladimir Putin. Oh, no, maybe even Vladimir Putin.
And his wrath has made investors so downcast and so negative that people have just given up. They want nothing to do with stocks, nothing to with this world, because they’re sure the White House will keep laying on the tariffs that seem to be wiping out your wealth and my wealth.
In this environment, it’s a wonder anyone’s buying anything, unless they think that the one person who’s standing in the way of a great economy. One that could have incredible growth with lowered inflation, lower oil prices, less regulation, more confidence, will finally change the stripes.
If Trump can lose the anger, drop the scowl, stop diminishing our friends and rivals while making common cause with our enemies, and generally start acting like he did in his first term, well, that would be huge for the stock market!
As far as the stock markets are concerned, though, we need less Jimmy Carter, more Ronald Reagan. Bottom line, maybe Wednesday isn’t de-liberation day.
It’s just the day when American investors may be finally liberated from the president’s not-so-pro-business attitude, once he gets the tariffs out of the way.
Watch above via CNBC’s Mad Money.
