“Since my election, U.S. stock markets have soared 70%, adding more than $12 trillion to our nation’s wealth, transcending anything anyone believed was possible,” Trump said during his State of the Union address in February. The U.S. economy, he said, is “moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never, ever going back.” On Feb. 12, eight days after Trump promised Americans a future filled with endless growth, the Dow hit its record high. But now, less than eight weeks later, panic over the coronavirus pandemic has rendered the president’s promises hollow. Markets have fallen more than 30% in a matter of days. Much of the wealth Trump claimed credit for has been erased.
