Trump and GOP aim to pin market downturn on Harris: ‘Kamala Crash’

Former President Trump and other Republicans are hoping to pin Monday’s stock plunge on Vice President Harris, dubbing it the “Kamala Crash.”

Trump led the charge on messaging on Monday.

“Of course there is a massive market downturn,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “Kamala is even worse than Crooked Joe. Markets will NEVER accept the Radical Left Lunatic that DESTROYED San Francisco and California, as a whole. Next move, THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 2024! You can’t play games with MARKETS. KAMALA CRASH!!!”

In a later post alongside a compilation video that mashed up the stock market news with Harris praising “Bidenomics,” Trump punctuated the alliteration in the tagline: “‘KAMALA KRASH.’”

U.S. stocks plunged Monday morning as last week’s weaker-than-expected jobs report fueled concerns about the strength of the U.S. economy and the outlook for microchip production. Global markets, particularly those in Asia and Europe, also declined.

There is no indication that Harris replacing former President Biden as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee drove the stock downturn. But the new attack line keeps with the GOP strategy of tying Harris to Biden’s policies.

“It’s a harbinger of what to expect in a Kamala presidency,” the Republican National Committee’s rapid response team said of the stock dip in a press blast on Monday.

For Trump and Republicans, who have long seen economic issues as favorable for them electorally, the market downturn provides an opportunity to get a leg up on campaign messaging.

Trump in January said that he hoped there would be an economic crash “in the next 12 months” —  before he would take office if he won — so he would not be like former President Hoover, who took office just months before the 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression.

Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, shot back at Trump’s messaging. 

“What middle class families need is steady economic stewardship, not chaotic ranting lies,” Moussa said in a statement. “Donald Trump had the worst jobs record of any modern president, and oversaw some of the worst days in the stock market in history while spending his presidency lining the pockets of his wealthy friends who shipped American jobs overseas. Economic experts agree: His plans would raise costs on working families by $2,500 a year and ‘supercharge’ inflation.”

The Harris campaign’s $2,500 figure came from the liberal Center for American Progress Action’s analysis of the effect of potential tariffs proposed by Trump.

Other Republicans quickly followed Trump’s lead on the “Kamala Crash” messaging.

“The #KamalaCrash is the result of weak leadership and poor decisions being made in the White House,” Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) said in a post on the social platform X.

“The American people are paying a real price this morning for two weeks of phony polls. The Kamala Coup has quickly become the Kamala Crash,” Virginia GOP Senate nominee Hung Cao said on X.

The National Republican Congressional Committee pushed the moniker alongside a compilation video of news reports about the downturn that ended with Harris saying she is “proud” of “Bidenomics.”

“First, the Harris-Biden admin & House Democrats made life unaffordable. Now, the economy is headed for a recession. #KamalaCrash,” the House GOP campaign arm posted on X.

Harris, for her part, has said on the campaign trail that boosting the middle class would be a “defining goal” of her presidency, speaking to economic messages that focus on tangible benefits for voters.

“We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity to build a business, to own a home, to build intergenerational wealth; a future with affordable health care, affordable child care, paid leave,” Harris said during a campaign stop in Atlanta last week.

The Harris campaign believes it has a powerful contrast to draw on economic issues, in part by challenging corporations and challenging corporate tax cuts.

It’s not certain that a stock downturn will necessarily harm Harris, though, according to influential GOP pollster Frank Luntz.

“I have studied economic factors that influence political outcomes for years now. I can state categorically that the stock market doesn’t matter – it didn’t help Trump when it was up, and it will not hurt Harris when it is down,” Luntz said in a post on X.

A spokesperson for the vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s new tagline.

Story was updated at 9:25 p.m. ET