"The stock market is making rich people richer," Donald Trump said during an hour-and-a-half campaign speech Saturday in Durham, New Hampshire. It sounded like a criticism of President Biden, which is strange, because when the stock market was up during the Trump administration, Trump took credit for it, and if the stock market were down under Biden, you can bet Trump would be criticizing Biden for that, too, rather than praising Biden for reducing wealth inequality.
After complaining about "rich people richer," Trump launched into a criticism of banks.
"Biden's handlers are making the banks much richer and you much poorer," Trump said. "We're gonna get those banks when we get in office, we're gonna get 'em."
"Nobody knows the banking industry better than me, and I'm not gonna let them take advantage of you any longer," Trump said.
With Trump it's often hard to distinguish between what he says and what he means, and between maximalist initial negotiating positions and eventual finally negotiated outcomes. But this is risky stuff, because bank failures can lead to financial crises.
It's one thing to say "We're gonna get those banks" on the campaign trail; it's another thing to have the clip replayed on the news when you are president, people are losing jobs, retirement account values are sinking, and credit is drying up because of cascading bank failures. If Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders were going around running for president on a "We're gonna get those banks" message, there'd be widespread concern.
Banks did okay for themselves during the previous Trump administration, so people may be disinclined to panic. And I'm not recommending panic. The Trump-appointed Fed chair, Jerome Powell, is on the verge of successfully pulling off a feat of central banking calliope playing that is pretty spectacular and that inspires some confidence about Trump's choice in capital markets regulators. But after the 2008 financial crisis, after the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature and First Republic episodes of 2023, a presidential candidate leading in the national and swing state polls and running around promising "We're gonna get those banks when we get in office" is something to keep a wary eye on.
