WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - US President Donald Trump on Monday (Feb 5) accused Democrats who did not clap during his State of the Union address of being un-American and even treasonous.
His remarks came in a rambling, discursive speech at a factory in Ohio, during which he celebrated his revival of the American economy as the stock market plummeted by more than 1,000 points.
"Can we call that treason?" Mr Trump said of the stone-faced reaction of Democrats to his speech. "Why not? I mean, they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much."
Mr Trump was speaking during a visit to a company near Cincinnati that makes pneumatic and hydraulic cylinders.
The company, Sheffer Corp, awarded each of its 126 employees a one-time bonus of US$1,000 (S$1,322.10) after the passage of the tax cut, and the White House clearly hoped to use it to drive home the economic message in last week's State of the Union speech.
"Your paychecks are going way up," a beaming President said to the friendly audience. "Your taxes are going way down."
But as Mr Trump spoke, TV networks broadcast a jarring split screen. While he boasted of companies bringing billions of dollars back to America, the Dow Jones industrial average was shedding billions more. At one point, the rout become so drastic that CNN and MSNBC switched from the speech to report exclusively on the market gyrations.
Unlike most of his predecessors, who have generally avoided talking about the ups and downs of the stock market, Mr Trump has repeatedly taken credit for the rise in stock prices.
He often mentions the bull market in settings that have nothing to do with the economy. But on Monday, he made no mention of it, preferring to focus on other economic indicators, like the unemployment rate and economic growth.
"When I signed the tax cut six weeks ago, it set off a tidal wave of good news that continues to grow every single day," Mr Trump said. "Before the ink was dry, companies were announcing thousands and thousands of new jobs and enormous investments to workers."
In fact, Mr Trump's speech coincided with the worst single-day decline in the Dow Jones average in history.
The market's decline on Friday and Monday erased all the gains it made so far this year.
On Air Force One, a White House spokesman told reporters that "markets do fluctuate in the short term", but added, "the fundamentals of the economy are very strong."
As Mr Trump patted himself on the back for the tax cut, he went after the Democrats for opposing the US$1.5 trillion legislation.
He delivered a lengthy digression on the State of the Union address, noting that Democrats sat on their hands as he ticked off one measure of success for the country after another.
"Even on positive news, really positive news like that, they were like death and un-American," he said, repeating, "un-American. Somebody said treasonous. I mean, yeah, I guess, why not."
Mr Trump was clearly also honing his message for the political campaigns to come before the mid-term elections in November.
He acknowledged that the President's party normally suffers setbacks, in part because its voters become complacent.
But he insisted that Republicans could ride the strong economy to victory this fall, saying Democratic leaders like Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California were out of touch with ordinary people.
Noting Ms Pelosi's recent assertion that regular people would receive only crumbs from the tax cut, Mr Trump said, "This is not a good day for Nancy Pelosi. She's our secret weapon."
He added, "I just hope they don't change her. There are a lot of people that want to run her out. She's really out there. I'm supposed to make a deal with her?"
Ms Pelosi fired back quickly, saying through her spokesman, Mr Drew Hammill, "As the Dow nose-dives on his watch, the President's rambling, deceitful tax scam sales pitch reached an all-time low in Cincinnati."
