Donald Trump’s schizophrenic tariff drama has sent the markets into a huge tailspin. Sobriety has set in among the investor class – in the past week, the S&P 500 has dropped nearly 6%, a $1.7 trillion selloff. The Asian markets are panicking and preparing for a global downturn. This might be the fastest any American president has tanked a great economy – Trump hasn’t even been in office for eight full weeks, and a recession looks inevitable by the summer, if not the spring. The NY Times decided this was the moment to remind everyone of Trump’s moronic economic messaging on the campaign trail:

As a presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump promised an economic “boom like no other.” But eight weeks into his presidency, Mr. Trump is refusing to rule out a recession — a striking change in tone and message for a man who rode widespread economic dissatisfaction to the White House by promising to “make America affordable again.”

His comments come as the stock market is tumbling — the S&P 500 fell 2.7 percent Monday after falling 3.1 percent last week — and business leaders are spooked about the uncertainty over his tariffs. Even some Republicans, who fear retribution if they cross Mr. Trump, have started to raise concerns about his levies.

The moment captures a fundamental challenge for Mr. Trump, a showman who makes absolute and sweeping promises that inevitably run into the reality of governing. The economy Mr. Trump inherited was by many standards in solid shape, with low unemployment, moderate growth and an inflation rate that, while still higher than what the Federal Reserve wants, had declined substantially. But the uncertainty that his policies have injected into the outlook is a jarring contrast with the picture Mr. Trump painted on the campaign trail.

“We will begin a new era of soaring incomes,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in October. “Skyrocketing wealth. Millions and millions of new jobs and a booming middle class. We are going to boom like we’ve never boomed before.”

[From The NYT]

All it took was a looming Trump Recession for the Times to admit that the Biden economy was actually pretty good. By the end of this year, investors and the donor class will be begging for just a sliver of the old Biden economy. As I said in the previous coverage of Trump’s tariff BS: this is what will get some of his people to turn on him. The MAGA faithful are in a cult and that won’t change. But the donor class? The business class? We’ll hopefully see some significant pushback from them.

The Daily Beast notes: “The Magnificent 7 tech stocks—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—all fell, with Elon Musk’s car brand taking the biggest hit with a 15% tumble.” Yeah, Tesla’s stock is falling rapidly, Tesla dealerships are being burned to the ground in Europe, and governments around the world are canceling their contracts with Musk and his companies. So much winning! Meanwhile, Trump went on a Truth-Social rampage, posting 100 times in six hours.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.