When Donald Trump offered some financial advice on Wednesday morning, stocks were wavering between gains and losses.
But that was about to change.
“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social at 9:37am Eastern Time (15:37 CEST).
Less than four hours later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on nearly all his tariffs. Stocks soared on the news, with the Nasdaq closing around 12.2% higher and the Dow Jones jumping 7.9%. The S&P 500 index, which closed 9.5% higher, gained back about $4 trillion (€3.6tn), or 70%, of the value it had lost over the previous four trading days.
“He’s [Trump’s] loving this, this control over markets, but he better be careful,” said the president’s critic and former White House ethics lawyer, Richard Painter, noting that securities law prohibits trading on insider information or helping others do so.
“The people who bought when they saw that post made a lot of money.”
The question is, was Trump already contemplating the tariff pause when he made that post?
Asked when he arrived at the decision to reverse the levies, Trump gave a muddled answer.
“I would say this morning,” he said. “Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it.”
He then added: “Fairly early this morning.”
Asked for clarification on the timing in an email to the White House later, a spokesperson didn’t answer directly but defended Trump’s post as part of his job.
“It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering,” wrote White House spokesman Kush Desai.
Trump Media and Technology Group shares soar
Another unusual aspect of the social post was Trump’s sign off with his initials.
DJT is also the stock symbol for Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of the president’s social media platform Truth Social.
It’s not clear if Trump was telling followers to buy stocks in general, or whether he was promoting Trump Media in particular. The White House was asked, but didn’t address that either. Trump includes “DJT” on his posts intermittently, typically to emphasise that he has personally written the message.
The ambiguity about what Trump meant didn’t stop people from pouring money into that stock.
Trump Media closed up around 22.7%, soaring twice as much as the broader market, a stunning performance by a company that lost $400 million (€363.5m) last year and is seemingly unaffected by whether tariffs would be imposed or paused.
Trump’s 53% ownership stake in the company, now in a trust controlled by his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., rose by $415 million (€377.2m) on the day.
Trump doubles down on Tesla
Trump Media was bested, albeit by only two-hundreds of a percentage point, by another Trump administration stock pick—Elon Musk’s Tesla.
Last month, Trump held an extraordinary news conference outside the White House praising the company and its cars. That was followed by a Fox TV appearance by his commerce secretary urging viewers to buy the stock.
Tesla’s surge Wednesday added $20 billion (€18.2bn) to Musk’s fortunes.
Kathleen Clark, a government ethics law expert at Washington University School of Law, said Trump’s post in other administrations would have been investigated, but it’s likely that it won’t trigger any reaction, save for maybe more Truth Social viewers.
“He’s sending the message that he can effectively and with impunity manipulate the market,” she said, “As in: Watch this space for future stock tips.”
