ECONOMY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Never shy about taking credit for the stock market when it soared, President Donald Trump has been characteristically quick to assign blame as Wall Street sputters. Whipsaw markets and a string of steep dives have spawned a pervasive anxiety in the White House, according to senior officials, where for the past two years the strength of the US economy has provided steady reassurance amid even the deepest of political crises. As Trump faces fresh vulnerability — most aspects of his life are now under investigation just as Democrats are preparing to assume control of the House — the economy no longer offers the same comfort it once did, despite rising wages and the lowest unemployment rate in half a century, according to interviews with multiple White House officials and people close to Trump. The business cable networks that air silently on West Wing flat-screens have chronicled dismal losses on several days over the past weeks, each chipping away at what was once Trump’s most reliable boast: record market highs. Wall Street rallied early Tuesday but ended with only modest gains, and the Dow and S&P 500 are still on track for their biggest December loss since the Great Depression.”
–Kevin Liptak, “Trump frets the economy will be his political Achilles heel,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, December 18, 2018 4:09 pm