Trump Blames Democrats for $3 Trillion Market Drop and Vows to Veto Their Bills

President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Democrats’ victories in Tuesday’s midterm elections for a $3 trillion drop in the U.S. stock market and told conservatives at a CPAC gathering in Florida that he would use his veto to block legislation from the Democratic-controlled Congress.

“You know our country lost $3 trillion all because of an election,” Trump said at an aerospace event at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Speaking to reporters later in West Palm Beach, he put it more directly: “We lost about $3 trillion when they found out that the Democrats did well in the election, rather surprisingly, but that’s the way life goes.”

The scale of Thursday’s sell-off is not in dispute, even if its cause is. According to Bloomberg, roughly $3 trillion was wiped off the value of the S&P 500 in a single session. The Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4 percent, its worst day since March 2020, while the S&P 500 lost 4.4 percent, its steepest drop since April 2025. Nvidia alone shed about $450 billion in market value.

Market watchers have linked the rout mainly to investor fears that a Democratic-controlled Congress will tighten regulation of the artificial intelligence industry. Several winning candidates campaigned on pausing new data-center construction. The sell-off followed a rally on Wednesday, when the Dow jumped 3 percent as oil prices fell on hopes that the election result lowers the odds of renewed fighting with Iran.

A veto strategy for divided government

At the CPAC gathering at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday night, Trump set out how he plans to handle the next two years. “So we’ll just get a veto, veto, veto, veto,” he told conservative activists, saying he would use his presidential veto power to block legislation from the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Democrats swept the House and Senate on Tuesday. The new Democratic Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027, and its leaders have promised early votes on health care, the Iran war and tariffs. The lame-duck Republican-led Congress returns next week, with government funding due to expire on December 11 and the defense authorization bill unfinished.

Trump also used the Florida trip to try to turn the page, touting a plan for a new American air show, CapeWeek, due to debut in 2028 at the Kennedy Space Center in a public-private partnership involving NASA, the state of Florida and Space Florida.

Trump says he was not on the ballot

Trump told the CPAC crowd that his own name was not on the ballot, despite his extensive campaigning for Republican candidates. “I was not on the ballots. Please remember that,” he said, adding that he held 30 rallies in 26 nights in the final weeks of the campaign.

Exit polls conducted by NBC and Reuters showed a sour mood among voters. According to Newsmax, 75 percent of voters were dissatisfied or angry about the country’s direction, 65 percent said Trump’s policies had made the economy worse, 62 percent blamed Trump for high prices and 57 percent said his immigration enforcement policies had gone too far. Trump’s approval rating stood at 38 percent in the polls.

He also defended his strikes on Iran, saying preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains the top priority. Trump said he was confident markets would recover as investors adjusted to the new political picture.

Reporting based on coverage by NewsOneUSA, Newsmax and Bloomberg via The Straits Times.