Online Pretty News: Wall Street Is Ready to Eat Trump"s Lunch

Friday, March 24, 2017

Wall Street Is Ready to Eat Trump"s Lunch

Eat Me, Drink Me - Marilyn Manson w/lyrics

Donald Trump exits after speaking during a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., February 28, 2017.

By Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

The overdone Trump bump, a reference to the Dow Jones Industrial Averages relentless post-election romp to 21,000, is finally coming to an end, and with good reason. It was always a chimera anyway, and just a matter of time before the moneyed class, which recognizes executive incompetence when it sees it, finally came to its collective senses. After all, what is the president of the United States if not our nations C.E.O.? And two months into the job, it has become blatantly obvious the we have made the terrible mistake in hiring someone so deeply unqualified, and without the slightest aptitude for the challenges of the big desk. If Trump were beholden to a genuine board of directors, like most C.E.O.s, he would have been already fired for cause.

Instead, we are stuck with our duly elected buffoon, though he must contend with his 360-degree reviews, which are a veritable poo-poo platter of losing. There is, of course, the ongoing embarrassment regarding Trumps Twitter addictionas I have written before, this rattle really should be taken away from himparticularly his assertion that the Obama administration wiretapped his Trump Tower office in the days leading up to the November election. He has provided no evidence to back up his claim, in typical fashion. Despite sworn testimony from the F.B.I. director James Comey, Trump persists. According to the latest Gallup poll, only 39 percent of Americans approve of Trumps handling of the presidency so far. I agree with him that the number feels fake; it seems too high to me.

Video: Donald Trump: Full-Time President, Part-Time Maestro

Worse, however, Trump now must contend with the fact that he has now, once and for all, lost the Wall Street Journal editorial board. True, he lost columnist Bret Stephens long ago, but now he has lost the Republican mainstream, too. In a searing editorial, on March 21, the Journal went nuclear. The editorial board remains baffled why he persists in making his wiretapping claim, despite any evidence that it happened. Yet the president clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, it wrote, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims. The paper noted that the wiretap tweet was also costing Trump politically by handing his opponents a sword, which it certainly has. They are using it to help sabotage many of the very policy initiativesfor instance, repealing Obamacare, lowering taxesthat he was supposedly hired to make happen, and which Wall Street enthusiastically anticipated. All of this continues the pattern from the campaign that Mr. Trump is his own worst political enemy, the Journal continued. He survived his many false claims as a candidate because his core supporters treated it as mere hyperbole and his opponent was untrustworthy Hillary Clinton. But now hes president, and he needs support beyond the Breitbart cheering section that will excuse anything. He was, the paper, concluded, in danger of becoming a fake president.

As far as Wall Street is concerned, losing the support of the Journal could be fatal. The recent drop in the Dow is just the tip of an iceberg increasingly starting to jut above the water line. As Ive noted before, the smart money guys at Goldman Sachs figure that Trumps promised tax cuts may not come until 2018, at best. Trumps health-care reformthe one that would remove 24 million Americans from coveragealready appears dead on arrival. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Council figures that Trump will increase the federal debt to $27 trillion, from the current $20 trillion, despite his campaign promises that he would do precisely the opposite. The bond market, which is twice the size of the stock market, has already correctly noticed that Trumps alchemy is a cause for financial concern. Since the election, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond has backed up 26 basis points, to 2.40 percent. If Trumps much ballyhooed promise to reform financial regulations comes-a-cropper too, that could be the last straw.

Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, likes to talk euphemistically about Trump as an unconventional president. But its so much worse than that. In his campaign, candidate Trump promised that we would be winning so much that we would get sick of winning. Its clear now that, to use Journal politesse, that was just more Trump hyperbole. Whats really dawning on the markets is that Trump is utterly incompetent. Why has it taken this long? Its one thing to be unconventional and to promise to drain the swamp in Washington; its quite another to prove, in a matter of weeks, that those were simply the hollow musings of a lunatic. We all know where this is heading, even if millions of Americans are not yet ready to admit it: lets face it, Donald, youre fired.

Full ScreenPhotos:The Exact Moment Each of Trumps Enemies Sold Their SoulsMitt Romney

The O.G. Never Trumper, Romney effectively renounced his past denunciations of the president-elect, whom he had previously called a con man, when Trump began publicly courting him for secretary of state. (He did not get the job.)

Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.Chris ChristieDuring his presidential campaign, the New Jersey governor called Trump a thin-skinned, 13-year-old, whose ideas made no sense, so it was quite the surprise to see Christie standing shell-shocked at Trumps side, weeks after he dropped out, upon giving him his hearty endorsement.Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.Ted CruzAfter Trump insulted his wifes looks, the Texas senator responded by all-but calling his primary opponent a ratf***er and refused to endorse him during a speech at the Republican National Convention. But months later, not only did he urge his voters to pull the lever for Trump, he was spotted morosely phone-banking in front of his former enemys campaign signage.Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park.Reince Priebus

A long time ago, in the year 2016, the R.N.C. chairman threw everything he could to prevent Trump from becoming the partys nominee. Days after Trump won, Reince stood by his side as his chief of staff, possibly getting the least humiliating outcome for an erstwhile Trump foe.

Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.Paul Ryan

The House Speaker spent months trying to maintain a safe distance from Trump, condemning his statements (even as he declined to renounce him) and at one point canceling a rally appearance with Trump after his past p****-grabbing comments came to light. Flash-forward two months, and Ryan was praising Trump in front of a cheering crowd in Wisconsin, thanking him for clinching the first Republican presidential win in the state in decades.

Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.Jason ChaffetzIm out. I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for president, the Utah congressman declared days after the Access Hollywood tapes leaked, calling Trumps comments some of the most abhorrent and offensive comments that you can possibly imagine. It took Chaffetz only 19 days to flip back to Trump.Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.Ben CarsonWhen Trump compared him to a child molester, the soft-spoken neurosurgeon responded that he would pray for him, the Carson equivalent of a sick burn. But after Carson wandered onstage at Mar-a-Lago to give his endorsement, he immediately transformed into one of Trumps most consistently confusing surrogates.Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.

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