Donald Trump holds disastrous press conference and sends stock market even further off a cliff

| 3:46 pm EDT March 16, 2020
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

On Friday afternoon, Donald Trump held a press conference chock full of corporate leaders which was clearly aimed at boosting the stock market. It worked, temporarily. But the market went on another nosedive today, and by 3:30pm, it was down by a little more than two thousand points – so Trump tried holding another press conference.

This time no one was buying what Trump was selling. In fact Trump’s babbling prompted all kinds of selling, as the Dow Jones dropped another six hundred points while Trump was speaking. It’s now down a stunning 2,600 points for the day, with a few minutes left before closing time (Update, 4pm: it closed down 2,997 points for the day). So what is Trump doing to make investors race even more quickly toward the exits?

Trump’s press conference has been a disaster in the sense that he simply has no answers. He keeps taking questions, but his responses are nightmarishly inadequate. Trump did say something truthful today when he said we’re likely heading into a recession. But for a guy who’s been vastly overstating the growth of the economy for the past three years, at this point honesty isn’t going to help him much.