Trump’s disinterest in stocks is sobering wake-up call for Wall Street

With all three branches of the American government under Republicans' control, President Trump has considerable leverage to carry out his agenda without any significant legislative guardrails.

While the stock market could serve as a check and balance for Trump, which the government might not provide, it looks increasingly doubtful this will be the case.

Trump made this clear in his remarks in the Oval Office on Thursday when he said that his decision to pause tariffs on Mexico and Canada had “nothing to do with the market.”

“I’m not even looking at the market because, long term, the United States will be very strong with what is happening here,” he said.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also seemed unbothered by the recent market selloff during an appearance on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” program on Tuesday.

“Over the medium term, which is what we’re focused on, it’s a focus on Main Street,” Bessent said. “Wall Street’s done great, Wall Street can continue to do fine, but we have a focus on small business and consumers. So we are going to rebalance the economy.”

There might not be a ‘Trump put’ after all

There was an expectation among some analysts that plunging stocks would cause Trump to modify his policy initiatives, which caused the most damage to the stock market.

This idea of the stock market wielding some sort of influence on Trump has been referred to as the “Trump put,” which is a play on what’s called a put option in the investment world.

The Trump put is supposed to be the point where Trump would step in to prevent the stock market from falling any further.

But if analysts are looking for a floor that Trump would not want the market to hit, so far there doesn’t seem to be one.

“Near term, there isn’t a Trump put,” said Alexander Altmann, global head of equities tactical strategies at Barclays Plc. “Trump mentioned there might be some pain in reference to tariffs — you can read between the lines that there was going to be some household pain or economic pain.”

JonesTrading’s Dave Lutz suggested to Bloomberg that if there is in fact a Trump put, it could be if the S&P 500 falls below 5500.

“That’s when the media will start rolling headlines about the stock market being in a correction – 10% off highs,” he said. “Those headlines should get the president’s attention.”

The S&P 500 fell to about 5770 during midday trading on Friday, down from 6,045 on Trump’s Inauguration Day. The Dow Jones also saw a brief drop below its 200-day average before rebounding by the end of the week.

The Nasdaq, however, struggled, falling 3.5% for the week, while the Russell 2000 posted a 4.2% decline by Friday’s close.

For no, though, Trump isn’t flinching despite the sell-off across all the major indexes.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reiterated in an interview on Thursday with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” what both Trump and Bessent have said: the president isn’t going to be influenced by market swings.

“The fact that the stock market goes down half a percent or percent, it goes up half a percent or percent, that is not the driving force of our outcomes,” Lutnick said.

“The president is focused on rebuilding America, and you are going to see growth in America. You’re going to see interest rates drop 1% or more. You’re going to see the stock market explode.”