Fact Check: Trump post saying US president should be impeached if Dow drops 1,000 points in 2 days isn’t real
Claim: A Twitter screenshot from 2012 shows U.S. President Donald Trump once posted, “If the Dow drops 1,000 points in two days the President should be impeached immediately!” Rating: A rumor online users circulated in early March 2025 claimed a screenshot showed U.S. President Donald Trump once tweeting, “If the Dow drops 1,000 points in two days the President should be impeached immediately!” The screenshot displayed the time of 12:01 p.m. and date of Nov. 6, 2012 — around a decade before tech billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, later changing the terminology of “tweets” to “posts” and the name of the company to X.
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Users shared the supposed screenshot on March 4, 2025, just as the U.S. stock market experienced large losses — including a two-day tumble of more than 1,000 points for the Dow. For example, numerous users — including the progressive, anti-Trump groups The Lincoln Project and Occupy Democrats — shared the image or text pertaining to the purported old tweet, with posts appearing on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Threads, TikTok and X. Some users also claimed Trump deleted the tweet, while others previously posted an uncropped version of the image. However, Trump did not post a 2012 tweet saying the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 1,000 points in two days should result in a U.S. president’s immediate impeachment. An unknown user altered the text of a genuine Trump tweet to create the fake post.
How the fake Trump post came about
Two searches of X — filtered by a date range and looking for either “1000 points” or “1,000 points” — confirmed the oldest tweet mentioning the text from the fake Trump tweet is dated Oct. 11, 2018. If Trump had tweeted the message in 2012, someone would likely have mentioned the tweet long before 2018.
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On that same day, Oct. 11, 2018, two developments occurred relevant to the fake Trump tweet. On the stock market, the Dow dropped more than 1,300 points over two days. Meanwhile, in the White House, Trump met with rapper Kanye West. People reported about the meeting with the headline “Trump Meets with Kanye West During a Hurricane After Slamming Obama for Doing the Same Thing.” The article read: ” A 2012 tweet of Donald Trump slamming Barack Obama for campaigning with Jay-Z surfaces as he meets with Kanye West during Hurricane Michael.”
The genuine 2012 tweet (archived) referenced by People read, ” Yesterday Obama campaigned with JayZ & Springsteen while Hurricane Sandy victims across NY & NJ are still decimated by Sandy. Wrong!” Trump tweeted that message at 12:01 p.m. PST on Nov. 6, 2012 — the same time and date mentioned in the fake post.
In other words, the person who created the fake Trump tweet about the Dow dropping 1,000 points used the genuine 2012 tweet about recording artists Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen, and Superstorm Sandy, altering its text to display the inauthentic message. Further evidence regarding Twitter’s tweet layout changes — for example, a comparison of the way the tech platform displayed the genuine tweet between 2016 and 2018 — also helped as additional evidence to confirm the screenshot’s inauthenticity.
In his own words: Trump takes credit for stock market rises but casts aside blame for sell-off
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump in recent days has dismissed fears of a recession and brushed aside the stock market sell-off, going so far as to say, “You can’t really watch the stock market.” That’s a new message from a leader who has frequently pointed to the market’s ups and downs as a reflection of himself and his activities, even when he was not in power.
Over the last year, while President Joe Biden was in office, Trump took credit for stock market rallies as a vote of confidence in his electoral prospects. When the market dipped, he blamed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. And he predicted that if Democrats won the 2024 presidential election, the stock market would have crashed.
A look at some of Trump’s observations on the stock market over the last year:
“THIS IS THE TRUMP STOCK MARKET BECAUSE MY POLLS AGAINST BIDEN ARE SO GOOD THAT INVESTORS ARE PROJECTING THAT I WILL WIN, AND THAT WILL DRIVE THE MARKET UP — EVERYTHING ELSE IS TERRIBLE (WATCH THE MIDDLE EAST!), AND RECORD SETTING INFLATION HAS ALREADY TAKEN ITS TOLL. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”
“High Interest Rates and Inflation are choking our great middle class, and ALL, our Economy is bad, and our Stock Market is rising only because Polls are strongly indicating that we will WIN the Presidential Election of 2024.”
Former President Donald Trump gestures as he is applauded before speaking at the National Rifle Association Convention, May 18, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
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“The stock market is, in a sense, crashing. The numbers are very bad. This is Bidenomics. It’s catching up with him. It’s lucky that it’s catching up before he leaves office as opposed to after he leaves office.”
“Thank you to Scott Bessent, one of the Great Prognosticators on Wall Street! There are many people that are saying that the only reason the Stock Market is high is because I am leading in all of the Polls, and if I don’t win, we will have a CRASH of similar proportions to 1929. I agree, but let’s hope we don’t have to worry about that!”
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump dances at a campaign rally in Allentown, Pa., Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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“We are a nation whose stock market’s continued success is contingent on MAGA winning the next election.”
“Dow Jones UP 742 based on the fact that the Market expects a TRUMP WIN in November! Nice compliment — Thank you!”
“STOCK MARKETS CRASHING. I TOLD YOU SO. KAMALA DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE. BIDEN IS SOUND ASLEEP. ALL CAUSED BY INEPT U.S. LEADERSHIP!”
“If Harris wins this election, the result will be a Kamala economic crash, a 1929-style depression. 1929. When I win the election, we will immediately begin a brand new Trump economic boom. It’ll be a boom. We’re going to turn this country around so fast. Many people say that they only reason the stock market is up is because people think I am going to win.”
“You want to see a market crash? If we lost this election, I think the market would go down the tubes.”
Trump started praising Bessent and said: “You know what his theory is? The stock market is the only sign of life, and it’s only going up because everyone thinks Trump is going to win the election. And others, too. Others, too. I’m seeing it a lot. I think they’re following your lead. But I appreciate that confidence.”
President-elect Donald Trump listens during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
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“We had three or four of the highest — I guess, almost every single day, we set new records in the stock market. We set new records economically.”
Trump, in comments directed at House Speaker Mike Johnson, then said: “Mr. Speaker, I think it’s important, maybe you should pass a bill, you have to start my term from Nov. 5, OK, or Nov. 6, if you want. Nov. 5 because the market has gone through the roof. Enthusiasm has doubled.”
Trump was asked by host Jim Cramer whether it’s still the case that stock market indexes were a good barometer of his performance.
“Well, I think I’ve always said, you know, to me, stock market is very — all of it, you know, all of it together, it’s very important. It’s an honor to be here in New York Stock Exchange. I sort of joked that I actually bought the building across the street because the stock exchange was here. It’s a big deal.”
Trump was asked whether he is concerned that his tariffs might hurt the stock market.
“Make our country rich. Tariffs will make our country rich,” Trump responded.
“Since my election, the stock market has set records. The S&P 500 index has broken above 6,000 points for the first time ever, never even close.”
“Everyone is calling it the — I don’t want to say this. It’s too braggadocious, but we’ll say it anyway — the Trump effect. It’s you. You’re the effect. Since the election, the stock market has surged, and small business optimism has soared, a record 41 points to a 39-year high.”
“I think the stock market is going to be great. In other words, we will rapidly grow our economy by dramatically shrinking the federal government.”
“When we turned over the reins, the stock market was higher than just previous to COVID coming in, which was an amazing achievement.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., right, and Vice President JD Vance, left, listen as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
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Having sparked a North American trade war and with the S&P 500 losing all of its post-election gains, Trump said in his speech to Congress: “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it’s happening and it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”
After a week of wild swings on Wall Street over uncertainty about his tariffs, Trump was asked whether he was expecting a recession in 2025. He said: “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.” He added, “It takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I think it should be great for us.”
Elsewhere in the interview, when Trump was asked about the market going down: “You can’t really watch the stock market. . You can’t go by that. You have to do what’s right.”
When asked about his hesitation during the “Sunday Morning Futures” interview before answering the recession question, Trump said: “I tell you what, of course you hesitate. Who knows? All I know is this: We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich you’re not going to know where to spend all that money. I’m telling you, you just watch.”
President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Business Roundtable quarterly meeting in Washington, March 11, 2025, as Business Roundtable Chair and Cisco Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins watches. (Pool via AP)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-trump-post-saying-223800475.htmlhttps://apnews.com/article/trumps-comments-about-stock-market-dba336a82ffaf000b80e7218d749995a
