CNN’s Abby Phillip Laughs in Trump Fan’s Face Over Stock Market Rant: ‘I’m Actually Legitimately Confused’

CNN anchor Abby Phillip laughed in prominent Trump supporter Batya Ungar-Sargon’s face as she tried to make sense of the assertion that President Donald Trump’s upending of the stock market has been beneficial.

The dominant story (among many) of Trump’s first 100 days in office has been the chaos wrought by tariff policies that wrecked financial markets, after which Trump announced a 90-day “pause” on most of the tariffs that caused the markets to tank in the first place, then announced zero deals in the weeks following that pause, then created more havoc by threatening Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for speaking out on the effects of those policies.

On Monday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip convened a panel that included Ungar-Sargon, Ana Navarro, Kevin O’Leary, Ashley Allison, and Sheelah Kolhatkar.

Phillip let out a bemused laugh as she asked Ungar-Sargon to explain how the fact that Trump “whacked the stock market” was a win for anybody:

PHILLIP: And I don’t know — and I think, Batya, I don’t know if anyone, even people who agree with you about the need to deal with trade barriers, you know, the tariffs and then the non-tariff trade barriers, would disagree that that needs to be addressed. But, again, it’s how, right? It is the how.

UNGAR-SARGON: But I think that the very thing that he’s being criticized for is the thing that worked. If he had come in and very nicely and politely gone to each of these countries —

PHILLIP: What worked? Which worked? What worked?

UNGAR-SARGON: I’m trying to explain. If he had very nicely and calmly and politely gone to each of these countries and said, look, you’ve been screwing us over, you’ve been screwing over the American working class for 40 years and we’re not going to take it anymore. Let’s sit down and have like a nice conversation. Why won’t you — how about you bring down those tariffs? Let’s meet halfway.

PHILLIP: Has it worked?

UNGAR-SARGON: They would’ve said, no way.

I’ll tell you what worked. He picked up a baseball bat. He whacked the stock market, and now they’re all sitting there in a state of relief that it’s only a 10 percent tariff and they are coming to the table. That’s how you know that it worked.

PHILLIP: (LAUGHS) I’m legitimately confused. So, Trump destroying 20 percent of wealth in the country over the last four months. Who wins from that?

UNGAR-SARGON: That’s not true.

(CROSSTALKS)

PHILLIP: Hold on, Kevin. Don’t interrupt me.

O’LEARY: Well, I want facts here, Abby.

PHILLIP: Who benefits when the stock market drops and people lose value in both their investments and also in terms of the companies?

UNGAR-SARGON: We have 70 countries trying now to get a deal. So, yes, it’s been four weeks and we don’t have a deal yet. They’re working. They’re very close to announcing them. India and Vietnam both announced tariffs on China. You think they would’ve done that if Trump hadn’t shown that he was serious about standing up for the American working class and that he doesn’t work for Wall Street?

PHILLIP: How have the American people benefited is the question that I’m asking in this period.

UNGAR-SARGON: $1.5 trillion period manufacturing.

PHILLIP: Those are commitments that have not materialized in a single —

UNGAR-SARGON: In four weeks? Do you know how long it takes to build these things?

KOLHATKAR: Most of those are press releases and pictures with shovels and then it never happens.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.