Roger Kempa’s response to my opinion that Trump is manipulating the stock market is very thoughtful and fairly well researched. He cited the SEC Law prohibiting such action. What Roger doesn’t say is the law is based on those people making money from their actions. Mr. X buys a stock before his company releases information about a huge mineral find causing the stock to go up in price. Mr. X sells his stock and then shorts it. Shorting it means betting the stock will fall. He then lets the media know the report numbers have a decimal point misplaced and the stock falls. The paper trail puts Mr. X in jail.

President Eisenhower said we need autobahn type highways like Europe so we can move military equipment from coast-to-coast quickly. It was also a job creator. When he announced it the market rose with infrastructure related stocks raising the most. He manipulated the market but did not get any compensation for it. Therefore, no violation since it really happened. Even though many of his friends and others made money, he didn’t.

I do not know if Trump or his family makes money off his manipulations or if he does it for his own entertainment. Every time he says the Chinese are coming to the table to end the trade war, the market goes up. It goes back down when the Chinese say they aren’t aware of any such meeting proposal. One possibility is he wants to prop up the market to help him cater to those people who have investments in the stock market; the vast majority of those people is in Electronic Funds Transfers and mutual funds and is only looking at their end of the month report. His last statement was two days before the reports would have closed out for September. That is manipulation for a non-financial reason for him. It’s for his ego and to get him re-elected.