John Authers, Columnist

Trump's Market Was So-So, Whichever Way You Cut It

Choosing to be judged by the performance of stocks was always a dumb idea. Joe Biden shouldn’t make the same mistake.

January 20, 2021 at 5:01 AM UTC

John Authers is a senior editor for markets and Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former chief markets commentator at the Financial Times, he is author of “The Fearful Rise of Markets.”

Speaking to the gallery.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

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We don’t yet know how history will judge Donald Trump’s presidency, but we know how he wanted his term in office to be evaluated — by the performance of the stock market. From the earliest days after his election, he keenly tweeted the market’s strong reaction to his victory, and he continued to hype the succession of records on his watch.