Fox Business host Stuart Varney said that President Donald Trump “was right to tout" stock market growth that has taken place since his inauguration as one of his achievements, claiming that “it was his policies which created” the rally. However, Varney dismissed the February 5 Dow Jones 1,175 point drop as an overdue market “correct[ion],” saying that “presidents shouldn't stick into that kind of sell-off on a day-to-day basis” and advising Trump to “steer clear of that, please.” Varney’s comments continue a pattern of showering Trump with praise for a strong economy and stock market or defending his economic policies, while ignoring the six-plus years of steady economic growth under the previous president, Barack Obama, whose economic policies Varney frequently criticized.
Varney’s exhortations of “the Trump stock market rally” are misleading, as they fail to acknowledge that the growth continues the more than six years of steady stock market growth under Obama. From March 6, 2009, to November 7, 2016, the Dow Jones climbed about 11,632 points -- almost a 157 percent increase.
Even though Obama’s economic record directly contributed to the so-called “Trump rally” Varney praises, Varney frequently and bizarrely attacked Obama on the economy. True to what he himself has called his “very clearly partisan” nature, Varney even credited President George W. Bush for “fix[ing] the financial panic” when the 2007 Great Recession started and said “the economy fell off” on “Obama’s watch.” Varney also claimed that GDP figures in April 2017 meant a “bounce back” was on the horizon, but that similar numbers in April 2016 meant we were “sliding toward recession.”
From the February 6 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends: