President Donald Trump accidentally suggested he is not a “smart president” while speaking at the White House on Friday.
The president was addressing the crowd at a signing for the GENIUS Act in the East Room when he brought up the value of the dollar and how a smart president would never let it slide. The GENIUS Act, which stands for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins, establishes the first regulatory framework for stablecoins, which are digital currencies tied to the value of an asset like the U.S. dollar.
The problem with his comment is that the value of the U.S. dollar did slide during the first part of the year while Trump has been in office.
“No, we’re not going to let the dollar slide. If you have a smart president, you’re never going to let the dollar side,” Trump said. “If you have a dummy, that could happen.”
The president then made a dig at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
“Have you ever asked him about the dollar slide?” Trump said. “He would have no idea, but we can’t let that ever happen again.”
Trump took office on January 20. The U.S. dollar is down more than ten percent over the first six months of the year. It was the dollar’s worst start of the year in more than half a century since 1973.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a number of other major currencies, including the euro and yen, shows that the U.S. dollar soared after the election as investors viewed Trump as pro-growth and pro-business, but it peaked in mid-January.
The dollar is currently at 98.46 on the ICE U.S. Dollar Index (DXY). On January 20, it was at 109.34.
It’s taken a beating as Trump has moved to shake up global trade and announced a series of hefty tariffs, far greater than investors and analysts had expected. That, coupled with persistent inflation and high interest rates, has worried investors.
Even as the president has backed off some of his biggest trade threats and stocks have regained losses, the value of the dollar remains down.
It has also reacted negatively to the president’s repeated attacks on the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which have sparked concerns that he would try to fire the head of the U.S. central bank.
The weaker dollar means it costs more for Americans traveling abroad, and the U.S. looks less appealing to foreign investors.
At the White House, Trump also criticized the group of ten countries known as BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. He recalled how he had threatened them with 10 percent tariffs while accusing them of wanting to overtake the dollar, so they backed off.
That’s when he declared the U.S. would not let the dollar slide and only a “dummy” would. Critics were quick to seize on it on social media, noting the dollar’s worst start of the year in decades.
The U.S. dollar was down .23 percent on Friday even as the president joked during the event, “The GENIUS Act, they named it after me.”
