Trump blames stock market nose-dive on Dems’ midterm victories — and he’s not wrong - The Independent

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

President Donald Trump blamed Thursday’s stock market nose-dive on Democrats’ midterm victories — and his assessment is correct.

“The Stock Market suffered one of the Worst Days in History based on the results of the Election. Such a sad thing to watch! It took so much work to get us to a level that no one has ever seen before, and then this. Your 401(k)s have, therefore, dropped,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the closing bell Thursday.

“Remember, it wasn’t Republicans, it was Dumocrats. Do not fear, however, we will soon, one way or the other, be BIGGER AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

While Trump’s online rants typically are exaggerated or sprinkled with falsehoods, it is accurate to say that the blue tsunami in reliably Republican states Tuesday also hit Wall Street.

The Nasdaq 100 — the top companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, including chip-maker Nvidia, Apple and Google’s parent company Alphabet — saw its worst session Wednesday since March 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The stock market index sank 6.4 percent, wiping out $2.3 trillion in value, Bloomberg reported.

Stocks continued to plummet Thursday amid fears that the new Democrat-controlled Congress convening in January would tighten the reins on artificial intelligence.

The Nasdaq Composite, a broad market benchmark, dipped 5.52 percent, while the S&P 500 dropped 4.36 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 1,833.06 points, per CNBC.

Trump has been a major backer of AI — or SI for Super Intelligence, as he demands others call it.

“We’re leading China in AI,” the president said in September amid concerns that AI would have catastrophic consequences on the human race. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world. And frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.”

The day Trump took office, he revoked a 2023 executive order signed by then-President Joe Biden that required developers of AI systems that posed risks to national security, the economy, public health or safety to share safety test results with the federal government.

With Republicans losing major House, Senate and governor races, investors are afraid that Democrats will curb the expansion of data centers that power AI systems.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who causes with the Democrats, called for a national data center moratorium Wednesday.

“Americans don’t want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity’s future,” he wrote on X.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who poured $445 million into Republican midterm campaigns, took a hit as his companies, rocket manufacturer SpaceX and electric car maker Tesla, saw their stocks dip 9 percent and 10 percent, respectively, Thursday, according to Yahoo Finance.