After spending much of the morning amplifying bizarre falsehoods about the election and refusing to concede defeat even as two additional states certified his loss, President Donald Trump on Tuesday held a surprise press conference at which he bragged about the stock market for just over a minute before leaving without taking a single question from reporters.
“The stock market’s just broken 30,000. Never been broken, that number,” Trump said after briefly discussing promising recent news on several potential coronavirus vaccines.
“That’s a sacred number, 30,000, and nobody thought they’d ever see it,” the president said, referring to the Dow Industrial Average’s new record-breaking milestone—a figure that obscures the widespread material suffering tens of millions of Americans are experiencing in the midst of the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
On top of failing to mention that broader and more instructive economic context, Trump—who repeatedly claimed prior to the November election that the stock market would crash if Joe Biden won—also omitted the fact that the market soared in part because of news that the General Services Administration allowed the transition to the Biden administration to begin after weeks of delay.
“Investors are cheering signs that a protracted fight over control of the White House is potentially drawing to a close, reducing political risks over the winter months,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Following his attempt to take credit for the stock market surge, Trump left the briefing room without taking any questions from reporters:
“Well that was weird as shit,” one reporter was heard saying after Trump’s departure, a sentiment others echoed on social media.
Trump took no questions after today’s very quick appearance in the briefing room to talk about the stock market.
You can hear a reporter say, “Well that was weird as shit.” pic.twitter.com/lrkjlEHx3h
— The Recount (@therecount) November 24, 2020
Trump’s strange public appearance came shortly after Pennsylvania and Nevada certified their election results, officially rewarding President-elect Joe Biden a combined 26 electoral votes and striking what could be a fatal blow to the president’s ongoing legal effort to overturn the results in those key battleground states.
“As required by federal law, I’ve signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted following the state election board’s certification. “I want to thank the election officials who have administered a fair and free election during an incredibly challenging time in our commonwealth and country’s history. Our election workers have been under constant attack and they have performed admirably and honorably.”