Donald Trump made the mistake in an interview that no other president has made when, MSNBC’S Lawrence O’Donnell says, he predicted a recession is coming. Lawrence details the aftermath of Donald Trump’s statement that led to the worst market day of 2025 and one of the worst days of Elon Musk’s life.
For more context and news coverage of the most important stories of our day click here: https://www.msnbc.com/
» Subscribe to MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/msnbc
» Subscribe to MSNBC on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@msnbc
» Subscribe to MSNBC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/msnbc
Download our new MSNBC app for the latest breaking news and daily headlines at a glance: https://www.msnbc.com/information/download-msnbc-app-n1241692
Follow MSNBC Show Blogs
MaddowBlog: https://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of political headlines, commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Inside with Jen Psaki, Morning Joe, The Beat, Deadline: White House, All In, The Last Word, The 11th Hour, and more.
Connect with MSNBC Online
Visit msnbc.com: https://www.msnbc.com/
Subscribe to the MSNBC Daily Newsletter: https://link.msnbc.com/join/5ck/msnbc-daily-signup
#Trump #recession #stockmarket
For more context and news coverage of the most important stories of our day click here: https://www.msnbc.com/
» Subscribe to MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/msnbc
» Subscribe to MSNBC on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@msnbc
» Subscribe to MSNBC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/msnbc
Download our new MSNBC app for the latest breaking news and daily headlines at a glance: https://www.msnbc.com/information/download-msnbc-app-n1241692
Follow MSNBC Show Blogs
MaddowBlog: https://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of political headlines, commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Inside with Jen Psaki, Morning Joe, The Beat, Deadline: White House, All In, The Last Word, The 11th Hour, and more.
Connect with MSNBC Online
Visit msnbc.com: https://www.msnbc.com/
Subscribe to the MSNBC Daily Newsletter: https://link.msnbc.com/join/5ck/msnbc-daily-signup
#Trump #recession #stockmarket
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, Elon Musk experienced the seventh worst day of his life today, with the stock market
00:06crashing on fears that may Donald Trump caused recession, which Wall Street is calling the
00:12Trump session.
00:14Getting a recession named after you as president is not easy.
00:20It's usually is not so clear, not an absolute straight line of causation from presidential
00:25policies to a recession, and so no one called any of the recessions of our lifetimes a
00:35president recession, a Bush recession or a Reagan recession or, you know, none of that.
00:42They didn't try to do that with the name of any other president during our lifetimes.
00:48Of course, there were no recessions under the last three Democratic presidents, President
00:53Biden, President Obama, President Clinton.
00:56Donald Trump has failed miserably in his attempt to blame what even he suggests may be a looming
01:03recession on President Biden, who handed Donald Trump the highest performing American economy
01:09in history and the highest performing stock market in history.
01:15And during the Trump presidency, just these last few weeks, consumer prices have gone
01:19up and stock prices have gone down way down.
01:24CNBC reports on Friday, Tesla wrapped up a seventh straight week of losses, its longest
01:30losing streak since debuting on the Nasdaq in 2010.
01:34The stock has fallen every week since CEO Elon Musk went to Washington, D.C., to take
01:41on a major role in the second Trump White House since peaking at 479.86.
01:47On December 17th, Tesla shares have lost more than 50 percent of their value, wiping out
01:55upward of $800 billion in market cap.
01:59Monday marked the stock's seventh worst day on record.
02:06Elon Musk has publicly confessed to using ketamine to get through emotionally difficult
02:13times.
02:15Donald Trump made the mistake in an interview this weekend that no other president has made.
02:21He essentially predicted a recession is coming.
02:28Are you expecting a recession this year?
02:32I hate to predict things like that.
02:34There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big.
02:40I got to tell you, that's the first time I've actually seen the video.
02:43The way I do this is I read the Trump transcripts.
02:46I don't look at the video.
02:49It's even stupider when you see the video.
02:52Transition almost sounds like recession, but that's what he meant when he said transition.
02:57When a president is asked if he's expecting a recession, the correct answer is no.
03:04It's always been no.
03:06Every president has known that prior to Donald Trump.
03:09There was plenty of talk of a possible recession during President Biden's term, with some
03:15economists actually predicting a recession because of President Biden's policies.
03:21Not only were those economists, and they were reasonable economists, but not only were those
03:25economists' predictions very wrong, but Joe Biden always said they were wrong.
03:32Joe Biden always said there would not be a recession on his watch.
03:35Joe Biden always promised no recession.
03:39Donald Trump had a chance to fix his failed answer to the, are you expecting a recession question.
03:47And of course, it just got worse.
03:50Maria Bartiromo asked you and you kind of hesitated.
03:55I'll tell you what, of course she hesitated.
04:00Who knows?
04:02The guy who claimed to be a business genius, and that's why you should elect him president,
04:07that guy answers the most important question you can ask him about the economy.
04:12He answers it with a, who knows?
04:15And as soon as the stock market opens up after Donald Trump says that, the stock market panics.
04:23And if you ask anyone on Wall Street, as the financial networks have been doing in their
04:27live coverage of the Trump stock market collapse, why is the stock market collapsing?
04:33No one says, who knows?
04:35No one on CNBC today, all day.
04:38No one said, who knows?
04:41They all say it's the Trump tariffs, which they all believe could lead to now the Trump
04:49session and the Wall Street Journal has even predicted that the Trump tariffs could lead
04:53to a great depression.
04:56If Donald Trump announced right now that he is not going to impose any of those tariffs
05:02that he has promised to impose, and he will simply stop talking about tariffs, the stock
05:09market would rally tomorrow and go through the roof.
05:14But Donald Trump is now trying to pretend he doesn't pay any attention to the stock
05:19market.
05:21So I won the election.
05:23The markets went up thousands of points.
05:26You have no choice but to vote for me because your 401ks down the tubes.
05:32You want to see a market crash?
05:33If we lost this election, I think the market would go down the tubes.
05:37I think the stock market's going to be great.
05:40So that guy, yeah, he never thinks about the stock market.
05:44The truth is Donald Trump doesn't understand the stock market, which is why he never got
05:48any richer in the stock market.
05:50Donald Trump didn't invest in Microsoft in the early years.
05:54He had plenty of money to do it, but he didn't.
05:56He didn't invest in anything in their early years and ride any stock up.
06:01He didn't invest in Tesla, for that matter, or anything else, because he doesn't understand
06:06anything about investing.
06:09Or the stock market, apparently.
06:12Elon Musk's position as the richest person in the world is based on the value of Tesla
06:17stock.
06:19The sinking Tesla stock price is not Tesla's only problem.
06:24Sales of Tesla in Europe have collapsed.
06:27Tesla car sales in Germany fell by 76%, down 24% in the Netherlands, 42% in Sweden, 48%
06:38in Norway and Denmark, 45% in France, 55% in Italy, 10% in Spain, 53% in Portugal.
06:49In the United States, Tesla sales fell by 6%, with Cybertruck's sales down 32%.
06:58And on Saturday, a Tesla showroom in Manhattan was shut down after more than 350 protesters
07:04gathered outside.
07:06Democratic State Senator Brad Hoylum-Segal, who represents the district, told The New
07:11York Times that protesters have gathered at that location for weeks, with each weekend's
07:16protests drawing a larger crowd than the previous weekends.
07:19He told The Times that it is, quote, cathartic for New Yorkers to go to the streets and that
07:24it was important for Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump to see that cutting the federal government
07:29off at its knees is going to hurt a lot of people.
07:32The Washington Post reports, quote, since President Donald Trump's inauguration, more
07:36than a dozen violent or destructive acts have been directed at Tesla facilities, according
07:40to court documents, surveillance photographs, police records and local media reports reviewed
07:45by The Washington Post.
07:46In March, several Tesla superchargers at a shopping center in Littleton, Massachusetts,
07:52were set ablaze.
07:53Vandals in Maryland also spray-painted No Musk onto a Tesla building alongside a swastika-like
08:00symbol.
08:01In February, a man brandishing an AR-style semi-automatic weapon fired at a Tesla storefront
08:06in Salem, Oregon, just a few weeks earlier, investigators say the same man attacked the
08:12same dealership by throwing Molotov cocktails at Tesla vehicles through the store window.
08:18He caused an estimated $500,000 in damage, according to court documents.
08:24Cryptocurrencies had a very bad day on Wall Street today.
08:28If the United States of America were a big investor in crypto, like Donald Trump wants
08:33us to be, the United States would have lost a lot of money today.
08:37But luckily, the Social Security trust funds are not crypto.
08:43So the Social Security trust funds did not lose a dime today.
08:48On Friday, Donald Trump announced nothing that kind of seemed like something.
08:54I signed an executive order officially creating our strategic Bitcoin reserve, and this will
09:02be a virtual Fort Knox for digital gold to be housed within the United States Treasury.
09:08That's a big thing.
09:11That's not a big thing.
09:12It's kind of a fake thing.
09:14Because the first question you would have is, how is the United States of America going
09:17to buy cryptocurrencies?
09:20That would be the same thing as the United States buying Tesla stock or any other stock,
09:25which the United States of America cannot legally do.
09:29Here's what Donald Trump actually said they are going to do.
09:35The Treasury and Commerce Departments will also explore new pathways to accumulate additional
09:40Bitcoin holdings for the reserve, provided it's done at no cost to the taxpayers.
09:46Oh, OK.
09:48So that means the Treasury will not buy any cryptocurrencies at all.
09:53That's like me saying I'm going to explore new pathways to buy the Boston Celtics.
09:58Cryptocurrencies are for sale, just like cryptocurrencies are for sale.
10:01But no matter how many pathways I explore to buy the Boston Celtics, I won't be able
10:07to do it.
10:09Donald Trump did say one true thing about the United States government and cryptocurrencies.
10:14He said the federal government already owns Bitcoin, some Bitcoin.
10:19And that's true.
10:20And every bit of cryptocurrency in the possession of the federal government, every bit of it
10:27was seized as part of a criminal prosecution of drug dealers and others, other criminals
10:33who own and trade in cryptocurrency.
10:36The federal government also owns yachts and fancy cars and a lot of a lot of other stuff
10:42seized in criminal prosecutions of drug dealers.
10:45That is the only legal way the federal government can obtain cryptocurrencies.
10:51It is not legal for the federal government to buy cryptocurrencies.
10:57And so the Trump team will be exploring those pathways and probably never find a legal pathway
11:05to obtain crypto other than arresting a lot more drug dealers.
11:12According to an affidavit written under oath by Tiffany Flick, who worked at the Social
11:18Security Administration for 30 years, most recently as the acting chief of staff to the
11:23acting commissioner of Social Security, thanks to Elon Musk, Donald Trump could become the
11:29first president in history who fails to deliver Social Security benefits, as every president
11:36since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has managed to do every day.
11:41That Social Security has been in operation for the last 85 years.
11:47Social Security checks have never been a day late or a dollar short.
11:51But now we have no idea what is happening inside the Social Security Administration.
11:58The 12 page affidavit goes into great detail.
12:01This is an under oath statement, great detail about what has happened at the Social Security
12:07Administration in the recent days, leading to the conclusion, I am not confident that
12:12the Department of Government Efficiency Associates have the requisite knowledge and training
12:18to prevent sensitive information from being inadvertently transferred to bad actors.
12:26That is your birth date, your Social Security number and all the information necessary to
12:31steal your identity, possibly being, quote, inadvertently transferred to bad actors.
12:40Elon Musk's team is now running Social Security, including an acting commissioner, Leland Dudek,
12:46who was installed by Donald Trump.
12:49The affidavit says Elon Musk's team, none of whom know anything about Social Security
12:56and its operations, have access now to everything that Social Security does, everything it has,
13:03including the invaluable and previously totally secure enterprise data warehouse, as well
13:11as the master beneficiary record.
13:15The affidavit says full access to other Social Security Administration data systems might
13:20also include right access, which would allow for the changing of data in the system.
13:27So Elon Musk's tech team could change the amount of Social Security you might receive next month,
13:34including changing it down to zero or
13:37the system.
13:42We don't know because we have no idea what Elon Musk is doing inside Social Security.
13:49The affidavit says we can no longer be sure, quote, that Social Security Administration
13:55programs will continue to function and operate without disrupt disruption.
14:00That would be the first disruption in the history of Social Security, the oldest, the biggest,
14:06the most successful government program in American history.
14:11The affidavit says the disruptions Elon Musk could create, quote, could result in benefits
14:18payments not being paid, paid out or delays in payments.
14:22I understand the Department of Government Efficiency associates have been seeking access
14:27to the source code to Social Security Administration systems.
14:31If granted, I am not confident that such associates have the requisite understanding of Social
14:37Security Administration to avoid critical errors that could up and Social Security Administration
14:43systems. No one has ever been worried about that before in the 85 year history of Social
14:50Security. In a weird Elon Musk interview today on Fox, he said something not completely
14:57coherent about Social Security and eight year olds.
15:01Now, what you can be absolutely sure of is that Elon Musk had no idea that Social Security
15:06actually does before he took over Social Security anyway, pay eight year olds.
15:13He surely had no idea that there are thousands of eight year olds and six year olds and infant
15:19babies receiving Social Security.
15:23Because when a parent. Of children under the age of 18 dies, that child receives survivor
15:34benefits from that parent's Social Security account.
15:39So yes, there are Social Security checks going out to the oldest people in America and to
15:45the youngest people in America. And every child receiving survivor benefits from Social
15:52Security. Wishes they weren't.
15:57Will Elon Musk cut them off next month? We have no idea, but we do know he was very eager
16:02to stop food shipments from the United States Agency for International Development that
16:07were on their way last month to feed starving children in the famine in Sudan.
16:13Elon Musk loved doing that. He loved snatching that food away from those children.
16:19So no one should be shocked if he does have one of his techies flip a switch and Social
16:26Security stops sending all survivor benefits to every child who sadly receives those benefits
16:33in the United States.
16:35Donald Trump said two things in the same answer that sent the stock market crashing today.
16:41One was that ridiculous, who knows, to the question of, is there going to be a recession?
16:46But what he said immediately after that is the reason that everyone on Wall Street cites
16:52for the Trump stock market crash.
16:56Maria Bartiromo asked you and you kind of hesitated.
17:00I'll tell you what, of course you hesitate. Who knows? All I know is this. We're going
17:05to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and we're going to become so rich
17:10you're not going to know where to spend all that money.
17:14We're going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. We are going to take
17:21in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. OK, who are we going to take it from? We are
17:29going to take it from ourselves. Every American consumer will pay the Trump tariffs and everyone
17:37on Wall Street knows that. And that is why the stock market is crashing. No one is going
17:42to get richer because of the Trump tariffs. Everyone is going to have less disposable
17:47income because we will all be paying the Trump tariffs. Donald Trump is gleefully talking
17:53about taking hundreds of billions of dollars from you, from his voters, from everyone in
18:00the United States and only from people in the United States, because the Trump tariffs
18:05cannot be paid by anyone else. Last week, Donald Trump announced a delay in his illegal
18:13tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports to this country. But Canada has decided to play
18:18tougher than Donald Trump and is going ahead with its retaliatory tariffs against Donald
18:24Trump. And the people of Minnesota know it.
18:35And the people of Minnesota know it.