Maggie Haberman Says Trump Playing ‘Whack-a-Mole’ With Market Becoming ‘Much More Problematic’

CNN commentator and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told Anderson Cooper that President Donald Trump’s “whack-a-mole” approach to calming markets is becoming “much more problematic” as the war drags on.

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, Cooper asked Haberman about the series of threats and delays that have roiled oil and stock markets.

Haberman said “it is hard to see it ending anytime immediately,” and that “it becomes much more problematic for him and he tries to handle things as they come up in sort of whack-a-mole fashion”:

COOPER: Maggie, as we mentioned, the stock market had its worst day since the start of the war. Shortly thereafter today, the president announced, I think it was like 4:11 P.M. I think we said the President announced another 10-day delay of his already delayed threat to bomb Iranian power plants. Is it clear how much of this the threats, the delays, you know, talk of negotiations is rooted in actual strategy? How much is being done on the fly?

HABERMAN: The president has engaged in this particular term, you know, this presidency much more so than the first one. And for a lot of reasons, a lot of it has been, you know, reactive or gut and feel based on what he wants to do. He’s clearly reactive to the stock market. And we know that we’ve seen that a number of times, but it’s some mixture of both, Anderson.

I don’t think the timing can be ignored about when he makes some of these announcements. However, you know, there is a real economic concern, right? I mean, that is that is one of the, the issues here in terms of the Strait of Hormuz, being essentially blocked. And the longer this goes on, the longer gas prices stay as they are, the longer, you know, gold futures are no longer seen as a safe haven the way they were.

That’s pretty jarring for a lot of investors. I think if this ends relatively quickly. But again, I don’t know how were defining relative at this point. It may not end up mattering to the President, you know, politically as much in November, although I still have to think it is going to matter to some extent to his party. The longer this goes on and it is hard to see it ending anytime immediately, it becomes much more problematic for him and he tries to handle things as they come up in sort of whack-a-mole fashion as the coverage is going on.

So again, it is a mix of both. There is much more conversation happening than I think people think there is based on what he says publicly. But yes, sometimes he is reacting as well.

Watch above via Anderson Cooper 360.

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