Former President Trump blasted the Wall Street Journal and other prognosticators in the financial sector who have predicted his economic plans will have a negative impact on the country’s financial future.
“You said, President Trump, at the moment there was a thing called the Trump trade in the markets. Do you know what that is?” Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait pressed Trump during an event Tuesday at the Economic Club of Chicago. “The Trump trade is very simple. People are betting that your policies are going to drive up debt, they’re going to drive up inflation, so they’re going to drive up inflation and interest rates.”
“Are the investors wrong,” he asked.
Trump replied, “Yeah, I had four years no inflation.”
Micklethwait continued, pointing to costly promises the former president had made on the campaign trail.
“President Trump, the markets are looking at the fact you are making all these promises, latest one was car loans. But I was also I was actually quite kind to you. I used 7 trillion. The upper estimate is 15 trillion,” he said. “People like the Wall Street Journal, which is hardly a communist organization, they have criticized you on this as well. You are running up enormous debt.”
Trump shot back, “What does The Wall Street Journal know?”
He noted that he would be meeting with editors at the publication Wednesday.
“What does The Wall Street Journal … they’ve been wrong about everything,” the former president continued, before turning his ire on Micklethwait. “So have you, by the way.”
The crowd in Chicago erupted in laughter and cheers.
“You’ve been wrong,” Trump said again.
“You’re trying to turn this,” the moderator tried to interject, “You’re trying to turn this into a debate,” he continued to say as Trump talked over him.
“You’re wrong. You’ve been wrong. You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff,” the GOP presidential nominee continued during the event. “You know, let me tell you about currency. You kind of you know, you go and jump on a lot of different subjects
Micklethwait then attempted to re-focus the conversation.
The contentious back and forth was one of several between Trump and Micklethwait, who at one point pressed the former president over his insistence that tariffs would not have negative consequences in a possible second term.
The former president has frequently attacked the Journal, Fox News and other major media properties owned by the Murdoch family, though he is slated to appear on the cable channel Wednesday morning for a town hall event focused on women’s issues.