The stock market that Donald Trump takes full responsiblity for when it's up, is down this morning. And it's all his fault.
He started this "easy" trade war with China and the market doesn't like it. And Stephanie Ruhle, the winner of today's "Don't Sugarcoat It" award, tells it like it is to Hallie Jackson:
HALLIE JACKSON (HOST): The big board down 300 points now. That's because stocks are in free fall this morning. Why? Klein. The new tariffs on u.s. Products, trains planes and more. The white house has basically said stop freaking out this is all doing enough. Here's Wilbur Ross.
WILBUR ROSS (on video): This has been coming for quite a while, anyone who thought the Chinese wouldn't do anything when we put on the measures that we did, just wasn't paying attention. This is not world war III.
JACKSON: MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle is back with us. I have a feeling you may have a thought on that.
STEPHANIE RUHLE (Note the eyeroll): Really. Anyone who thought China was going to do nothing? Just a few weeks ago his sidekick Peter Navarro said other countries are not going to do anything; they can't afford to. Well, guess what? He was wrong. China, their finance minister, has said, "We liked American farmers," they're specifically retaliating against US Tariffs, and Wilbur Ross, said it right... they got their arithmetic right. They're going after Trump Country: agriculture products, beef, soybeans, and manufacturing. Autos, Boeing is leading the decline today. This ad hoc, tit for tat, trade, let's call it, it's not a war yet, but it's certainly a skirmish, is something we absolutely have to sneeze at. When Wilbur Ross says he's surprised the market has reacted like this, he's lying. People inside the White House told them this was going to happen.
JACKSON: How long is this roller coaster going to go on when you look at the numbers?
RUHLE: We'll see. Volatility means it's going to go down and back up. If we now hit them with more tariffs, it takes us back to where we were after the depression when we saw this kind of activity, and it only lengthens the depression. Wilbur Ross says they're negotiating behind the scenes. I've talked to people in the White House saying there's no negotiations going on. They said when they got rid of TPP, they said "we're going to negotiate something better." There are no negotiations going on.
JACKSON: You make the point too. And as we pull up that graphic again, I want to bring that back up of what this is about. Soybeans, you see what states those are, Steph. These are states that at the numbers right here, in large part for Donald Trump. The top ten soybean producing states are Trump Country states. This has got to get the president's attention, one might imagine.
RUHLE You'd think. Here's the thing though, no one wins a war. The president himself says trade wars are "good" and "easy." Wilbur Ross says even shooting wars end in negotiations. But, you know what happens in those wars? Bloodshed and death and we can avoid that.
JACKSON: Stephanie Ruhle thanks for your perspective.
