Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump used the stock market plunge to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee.Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi said Trump's flip-flop reflects the political danger of tying a candidate's victories to something as volatile as the stock market."Of course there is a massive market downturn.
"Throughout history, I think politicians have avoided trying to peg their fortunes to the stock market as a signal of their policies or anything because the market goes up and down all around," Zandi said.When Trump was president in March 2020, the S&P 500 experienced several steep drops, including a 12% plunge on March 16, 2020, as fears about the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States grew. That was one of the worst drops in S&P history.
Trump, as a result, tried to spin Monday's market wreck and the consequent recessionary panic into a broader case against Harris' economic record. "The stock market, based on my experience, could end up green by the end of the day," Zandi said, noting that the market is still up for the year.The Harris campaign, when asked for comment on Trump's posts, pointed to a campaign speech the vice president gave last week in Atlanta.