Trump Won't Rule Out Recession as Markets Plunge; Musk and Rubio Clash in White House: A Closer Look

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Seth takes a closer look at the markets falling dramatically as Donald Trump refuses to rule out a recession amid rising prices and confusion over his on-again off-again trade war.  Late Night with Seth Meyers. Stream now on Peacock: https://bit.ly/3erP2gX  Subscribe to Late Night: http://bit.ly/LateNightSeth   Watch Late Night with Seth Meyers Weeknights 12:35ET/11:35c on NBC.   Get more Late Night with Seth Meyers: http://www.nbc.com/late-night-with-seth-meyers/   LATE NIGHT ON SOCIAL Follow Late Night on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LateNightSeth Like Late Night on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LateNightSeth Follow Late Night Instagram: http://instagram.com/LateNightSeth Late Night on Tumblr: http://latenightseth.tumblr.com/   Late Night with Seth Meyers on YouTube features A-list celebrity guests, memorable comedy, and topical monologue jokes.   GET MORE NBC Like NBC: http://Facebook.com/NBC Follow NBC: http://Twitter.com/NBC NBC Tumblr: http://NBCtv.tumblr.com/ YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/nbc NBC Instagram: http://instagram.com/nbc   Trump Won't Rule Out Recession as Markets Plunge; Musk and Rubio Clash in White House: A Closer Look - Late Night with Seth Meyers https://youtu.be/ZZdiFir_kNU  Late Night with Seth Meyers http://www.youtube.com/user/latenightseth

Transcript

00:00Markets continued to fall on Monday

00:02as Donald Trump refused to rule out a recession

00:04amid rising prices and confusion

00:06over his on-again, off-again trade war.

00:08And now Trump's Cabinet is fighting with Elon Musk

00:11over Musk's efforts to dismantle the federal government.

00:13For more on this, it's time for a Closer Look.

00:16♪♪♪♪

00:19Donald Trump brags about many things,

00:21but when he was president the first time,

00:23there was probably nothing he bragged about

00:25more than the stock market.

00:27I think we've created a stock market record 38 times or so.

00:30Might be more than that, but 38 times.

00:32We have a record stock market.

00:34We're doing better financially than we've ever done.

00:37Our markets are hitting records all the time.

00:39I have many, many records of the highest stock market.

00:42The stock market is way up again today,

00:45and we're setting a record literally all the time.

00:48Oh, no, don't tell me that on top of everything else,

00:50Trump is also one of those people who uses the word

00:52literally when he means figuratively.

00:54We're literally setting a record all the time,

00:58and my new stepmom is, like, literally the devil.

01:03As we've explained before, the stock market

01:05is not the economy.

01:06The wealthiest Americans own the largest share of stocks,

01:08and while stocks were hitting all-time highs,

01:10inequality was still soaring.

01:12That was true under Joe Biden, too.

01:14Although, even under Biden,

01:16Trump claimed credit for the stock market.

01:17Trump posted earlier today.

01:19Let me put it up on the screen.

01:21This is the Trump stock market

01:23because my polls against Biden are so good

01:26that investors are projecting that I will win,

01:29and that will drive the market up.

01:30I think the stock market's going up

01:33because I'm leading Biden in all of the polls.

01:35I think there will be a crash if I don't win.

01:37The Biden team can say, well, if things are so bad,

01:40how come the stock market's on a roll?

01:42Because they think I'm going to be elected.

01:44That you think the stock market's rallying

01:45because people think you're going to be elected?

01:47I do, yeah.

01:48I love how Fox hosts have to talk to Trump

01:50when he says something insane.

01:51They can't just say that's not true,

01:52so instead they repeat his own words back to him

01:56with a raised eyebrow.

01:57That's how you talk to your fiancé's parents

01:59the first time you meet them.

02:00Oh, so you think the Super Bowl halftime show

02:03was a DEI plot to indoctrinate America with wokeness?

02:07I do, yeah.

02:09But you heard Trump there.

02:10He said if he didn't win the election,

02:12the stock market would crash.

02:13Now, I bet you're expecting me to play a clip

02:15that proves the exact opposite.

02:16Well, I'm not going to do that, okay?

02:18I'm not your monkey.

02:19I don't perform for your amusement.

02:20I don't dance when I hear a little bell,

02:22and I don't play clip montages proving Donald Trump wrong

02:25when you want me to, okay?

02:27What's that?

02:28We do have a clip proving Trump wrong?

02:31And I do dance when a little bell rings?

02:34Whoo-hoo-hoo!

02:38You know what that means, baby?

02:39It's clip time.

02:40Breaking economic news this morning.

02:42Stocks beginning the day with a sharp dip.

02:45Another big market sell-off.

02:46800 points for the Dow, in fact.

02:48Right now we're pretty much at session lows.

02:50The S&P is down 2 3 quarters of a percent.

02:53The Nasdaq down 4 1 quarter for its worst day since 2022.

02:56Dow's negative on the year.

02:57The Nasdaq's down 9%.

02:59Look, there's clearly concerns about the economy,

03:02about all this uncertainty.

03:04JPMorgan's David Kelly.

03:06He told me that right now a lot of business people

03:08are like deer in headlights,

03:10and that is a very dangerous place to be.

03:13Now, to be fair, Trump only said

03:15the stock market would crash if Biden won.

03:16He never said it would do well if he won,

03:18for all we know his point was,

03:20look, Maria, it's gonna eat s*** either way,

03:22so let's have some fun and get a crazy person

03:24back in the Oval Office.

03:26Also, did you hear him?

03:27A lot of business people are like deer in the headlights.

03:30I think everyone's feeling like a deer

03:31in headlights right now.

03:32Have you seen the Democrats lately?

03:33I swear, I saw Chuck Schumer the other day

03:36eating grass by the side of the road.

03:39Even Trump's aides look like deer in the headlights.

03:42I mean, look at FBI Director Cash Patel's headshot.

03:45Dude always looks like Wile E. Coyote

03:47after he realizes he just walked off a cliff.

03:51So when Biden was president and the stock market was soaring,

03:53it was because of Trump, and now that Trump is president

03:55and the stock market is falling,

03:57you'll never guess whose fault it is.

03:58Oh, what's that?

03:59You already guessed?

04:00Joe Biden left Donald Trump a really lousy economy.

04:04We're transitioning from Bidenomics

04:07into this terrible economy

04:08that was delivered by the last administration.

04:10Donald Trump walked in with a crappy economy.

04:13I want to make sure everyone understands

04:15Trump has inherited a god-awful mess from Biden,

04:18and it's a cleanup job that we're watching right now.

04:21By the way, that's why I said earlier

04:23it would be Biden's recession.

04:24I'm starting to feel like the business in Fox Business

04:27is the same as the business in monkey business.

04:29It doesn't mean things of an economic matter,

04:32but rather shenanigans.

04:34I'm gonna start telling my kids,

04:35we're having dinner at a fancy restaurant tonight,

04:37and I won't stand for any Fox Business.

04:41So let me see if I understand that.

04:42You're saying the economy is good under Biden,

04:44Trump gets the credit,

04:45but when the economy is bad under Trump,

04:46Biden gets the blame.

04:47What you're saying is that the stock market

04:49is falling under Trump

04:50because Trump inherited a bad economy from Biden,

04:53but when Biden was president, the economy was so good,

04:55Trump deserved credit for it.

04:57I just want to understand,

04:57so when the stock market is rising,

04:59it's because investors think Trump

05:00is about to become president,

05:01but then when Trump does become president,

05:03the stock market falls

05:04because the economy under Biden was so bad

05:05that the stock market was rising

05:07because investors were hoping Trump would take over.

05:09The stock market would fall

05:10because the Biden economy was bad when Trump took credit.

05:12Is that what you're saying?

05:13Is that what you're, just tell me.

05:15Is that, is that what you're saying?

05:19Time to dance.

05:22And guess what, guys?

05:23Guess what?

05:24Now that the stock market is falling,

05:25Donald Trump is saying, you know what?

05:27Maybe we shouldn't care about the stock market so much.

05:30You said, look, we're going to have a disruption,

05:32but we're okay with that.

05:34Is that what you meant?

05:35The stock market going down was the disruption?

05:37What other disruption were you alluding to?

05:39Look, what I have to do is build a strong country.

05:42You can't really watch the stock market.

05:45You can't really watch the stock.

05:47That's all you've talked about for years.

05:49What do you want us to watch instead?

05:50Maria, it's a mistake to watch the stock market

05:52when you should be watching Severance.

05:54What a show, it's a great show.

05:56It's the only show Melania and I watch together.

05:58If I get even one episode ahead of her,

06:00she looks so mad, which is saying a lot,

06:01because she always looks a little bit mad.

06:02But we, we love the Severance

06:05and we love Lumen Industries.

06:06They're doing such great work over at Lumen.

06:08Not getting enough credit for it, if you ask me.

06:11The stock drop-off is due in large part

06:13to the anxiety and uncertainty over Trump's tariffs,

06:16which he has now announced, implemented, paused,

06:19announced, implemented, paused, and announced again.

06:21These tariffs have been more on again

06:23and off again than Ross and Rachel.

06:25That joke was brought to you by NBC's must-see TV lineup,

06:29must-see TV, now available to stream on Max.

06:33No one knows if the tariffs are happening

06:35or when they will happen or, for that matter, why.

06:38Trump says they're reciprocal tariffs

06:39that he's implementing on countries

06:41that already tariff American goods

06:43and that he's doing it because it will raise a lot of money

06:45and help farmers, none of which is true.

06:48His advisers, however, say it's because drugs

06:50are pouring in from Canada.

06:52We launched a drug war, not a trade war,

06:55and it was part of a negotiation to get Canada and Mexico

06:57to stop shipping fentanyl across our borders.

07:00I can tell you that in the Situation Room,

07:01I've seen photographs of fentanyl labs in Canada

07:04that the law enforcement folks were leaving alone.

07:06Canada's got a big drug problem, even in their own cities.

07:09Canada could do a lot more.

07:11Canada has been taken over, Brett, by Mexican cartels.

07:16But they are the politest cartels

07:18we've ever had to deal with.

07:19The Canadian cartels are so polite.

07:23They're always like, hey, welcome to our drug lab, eh?

07:26Would you mind smoking a little meth to prove you're not a copy?

07:30Now, that's an obviously insane thing to say,

07:31and rhetoric like that is obviously rattling the markets

07:34along with rising prices and fears of a recession.

07:36Surely the president can reassure anxious Americans

07:39that he'll do everything possible to avoid

07:42such a disastrous outcome, right?

07:44Let me stay on the economy for a moment

07:45because there are rising worries about a slowdown.

07:48You've got the Atlanta Federal Reserve

07:50saying we're going to have a contraction

07:51in the first quarter.

07:52Look, I know that you inherited a mess

07:54and you said that the other night.

07:55I've already been here.

07:56But are you expecting a recession this year?

08:01I hate to predict things like that.

08:03There is a period of transition

08:06because what we're doing is very big.

08:08We're bringing wealth back to America.

08:10That's a big thing.

08:12And there are always periods of it takes a little time.

08:17It takes a little time.

08:19But I think it should be great for us.

08:22I mean, I think it should be great.

08:23It's going to be great ultimately for the farmer.

08:25So, during the campaign,

08:27you said I'll fix everything on day one.

08:29And now that you're president, you've turned into George R.R.

08:31Martin. You guys, these things take time.

08:36Also, if someone asks you, will there be a recession,

08:38and you give a super long answer

08:40that concludes it will be great for the farmers,

08:42that is not reassuring.

08:44It will be great for the farmers.

08:45And in a way, we'll all become farmers

08:47because food will be so expensive,

08:49you'll have to start growing vegetables in your backyard.

08:52My favorite vegetable, of course, the steak.

08:54Later on, Air Force One, Trump was asked again

08:57if he thought a recession was coming

08:59and used a very convenient excuse to dodge the question.

09:02Are you worried about a recession?

09:04Maria Martiromo asked you, and you kind of hesitated.

09:07I'll tell you what, of course you hesitate.

09:09Who knows? All I know is this.

09:11We're going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars

09:13in tariffs, and we're going to become so rich,

09:16you're not going to know where to spend all that money.

09:18I'm telling you. You just watch.

09:20We're going to have jobs. We're going to have open factories.

09:22It's going to be great. And the plane is landing.

09:24And thank you for a lot of good questions, okay?

09:27Oh, now he's Mr. Airline Safety.

09:30Great questions, everyone.

09:31I'm going to get back to my seat because I do believe

09:33I left my tray table down,

09:34and we can't land until it's locked and upright.

09:37You've heard that a lot, and it's true.

09:39We got a lot. We love to lock it and get it upright.

09:41And why don't we all use this time

09:43to store our large electronic devices?

09:46We'll know when the economy's really doing bad

09:48when Trump starts giving Air Force One interviews

09:50wearing a parachute.

09:51That's a very interesting question you're asking about.

09:53I would love to answer, but there's no...

09:55Stop!

09:57It's not just tariffs weighing on the economy.

09:59Mass firings of government employees

10:01are also causing anxiety and uncertainty,

10:03and now those mass firings are also reportedly causing tension

10:06within the Trump administration.

10:08Tonight, Marco Rubio unloads on Elon Musk.

10:11The two men, according to The New York Times,

10:12getting into an explosive back-and-forth

10:14in a closed-door cabinet meeting.

10:16Musk accusing Rubio of not slashing staff

10:18at the State Department.

10:20Now, Rubio, who The Times reported,

10:22has been privately livid at Musk for weeks,

10:24calling him a liar and scornfully asking

10:26if he should rehire recently laid-off

10:28State Department staffers

10:29just so he could make a show firing them again.

10:31Musk wearing a suit and tie

10:33instead of his usual baseball hat, T-shirt, and jeans,

10:36punching back, telling Rubio he's, quote,

10:38good on TV, and then he implied not much else.

10:42Now, President Trump, according to the reporting,

10:44watched all of this like a tennis match.

10:46Of course he did. Even when he's doing a press conference

10:48with Elon, he looks like he's in hour three

10:51of a match at Wimbledon.

10:53Trump wants everything to run smoothly until it gets boring.

10:55Then he wants chaos because it's fun.

10:57He's the kind of guy who would bring up politics

10:58at Thanksgiving just to get a rise out of everyone.

11:00You know what? This has been a really great dinner.

11:01Too good, actually. What does everyone think

11:03about the casting in the new Little Mermaid movie?

11:06Uncle Joe, you've had a few drinks.

11:07Why don't you go first?

11:09The one thing Trump said he would do

11:11was bring down prices on day one,

11:12and instead he's dismantling the government

11:14in order to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich

11:18and stoking fears of a recession.

11:19I don't want to exaggerate, but I think it's fair to say

11:21that Trump is lying...

11:22-...literally all the time.

11:23-...this has been A Closer Look.

11:30♪♪♪♪

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