Politics - News Analysis

Watch the Humiliating Moment Trump Gets No Applause When He Tries to Slam Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump touted the country’s economic progress in a speech on Tuesday, highlighting job growth and a robust manufacturing sector, while also blaming the Federal Reserve for stunting the nation’s stock market successes.

The Fed raised rates too quickly and was too slow to cut them, said Trump during remarks to the Economic Club of New York. He also pushed for negative rates, noting that other countries “openly cut interest rates so that many are now actually getting paid when they pay off their loan,” Trump said. “Give me some of that. Give me some of that money. I want some of that money. Our Federal Reserve doesn’t let us do it.”

Since the 2016 election, the S&P 500 is up by 45 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by around 50 percent, and the Nasdaq is up by 60 percent, Trump said. But, while he praised those stock market gains, he noted that “If the Fed had worked with us, those numbers could have been higher by 25 percent.”

Trump is expected to tout the U.S.’s continued economic expansion as a product of his administration’s policies. On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted: “Economy is booming. Seems set to have another record day.”

Trump’s remarks, however, come as the pace of U.S. economic growth has slowed to roughly 2% annually, which would be far from a record.

Stocks did rise Tuesday, however. The S&P 500-stock index was up nearly 0.25%, or 12 points, to 3099, around noon. The index has never closed above 3100.

Despite the President’s focus on the stock market, many Americans, particularly lower-income ones, do not have any money invested in stocks. Economists have long questioned the ties between the stock market and the performance of the real economy.

Trump then claimed that had Hillary Clinton won, the markets would have crashed. Trump appeared to expect applause for that…but CRICKETS.

WATCH:

When Trump faced very little applause earlier in the speech, he claimed that only smart people clap:

meet the author

Nicole Hickman James is a lifelong Democrat and political activist who first cut her teeth as a teenager volunteering for Mike Dukakis’ presidential campaign. She has worked and volunteered for John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, HFA (Hillary For America), and Organizing For Action. She’s passionate about liberal and progressive causes and considers President Obama her favorite president ever. She holds her Bachelor’s from Boston College in Economics and her Master's from Columbia, also in Economics. When not working as a writer, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her three college-aged children.

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