President-elect Donald Trump rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning with his family (First Lady Melania Trump, daughters Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Trump) and his Vice President, J.D. Vance, by his side — and in front of large posters of Trump featured as Person of the Year on TIME magazine.
Celebrating an extraordinary milestone with my father @realdonaldtrump, @melaniatrump @tiffanytrump @jdvance as he rang the NYSE opening bell in front of his TIME Person of the Year cover.
Congratulations, Dad !
pic.twitter.com/W6H8ecvlKO
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) December 12, 2024
Vance shared the NYSE photo below and wrote: “President Trump will lead a great American comeback!”
Ready to ring the bell on the New York Stock Exchange.
President Trump will lead a great American comeback! pic.twitter.com/uH235bxRlD— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 12, 2024
Members of the GOP splinter group Republicans against Trump and former Republicans like Sophia A. Nelson — former GOP counsel for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee — objected to Vance’s phrasing. Nelson replied: “Comeback from what? The best stock market in history? The lowest unemployment in history? The greatest infrastructure investment in history? The best post-covid growth economy on earth?”
Former GOP presidential candidate and former Congressman Joe Walsh (R-IL) also rejected Vance’s take and wrote: “Bull****. Trump will INHERIT a great American comeback. America has been back for the past 2-3yrs. We’ve had the strongest post-COVID economic recovery of any industrialized nation, inflation peaked 2yrs ago, employment is way, way up, & the stock market has been kicking butt for the past 2-3yrs.”
Vance’s objectors are correct in that the Biden administration oversaw exceptional jobs growth and a booming stock market that reached record highs — indeed, the securities markets were so strong under Biden that, to explain away their success, Trump at one point claimed the highs were a reflection of investors’ belief that he would be elected again in 2024.
But while unemployment was low and jobs plentiful, and while inflation was controlled sooner in the U.S. than in other developed nations, high prices hung around long enough for Trump to use inflation as an electoral cudgel against the Democrats, second in his arsenal perhaps only to immigration and the border, another issue Trump campaigned on effectively.
Will Trump’s campaign promises of a comeback based on bringing prices back in line materialize? During his Person of the Year interview with TIME magazine, Trump was reminded that “many of the people who voted for you…cited high prices, particularly of food and groceries,” and was asked “If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure?”
Trump replied: “I don’t think so. Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”