Trump’s Iran Address, the Markets, and an Office Built for Abuse
Trump told the nation that the war with Iran was nearing its end. Almost finished.
Almost won.
Almost under control.
The problem was that this supposed endgame came packaged with more weeks of military escalation, no clear exit, no credible political roadmap, and exactly the kind of threat, vagueness, and self-dramatization that markets now seem to read more accurately than many of his supporters do.
The response was immediate. Oil prices surged. Equity markets in the United States, Europe, and Asia fell back. The Associated Press reported on April 2 that U.S. crude had jumped by more than 10 percent while Wall Street posted significant losses. Other outlets described the same basic mechanism: hopes of de-escalation disappeared, and risk premiums flooded right back in.
That is the first lesson of this presidency: Trump does not speak like a statesman trying to clarify events. He speaks like a salesman trying to package uncerta…
