Donald Trump during a Monday interview with Lindell TV said he hopes for an economic crash because he thinks it will boost his chances of winning the 2024 presidential election. The former president sat down with Lou Dobbs, a former Fox host whose show was axed in 2021 over Dobbs’s intense MAGA fervor. During the interview, Dobbs asked Trump to disclose his plans for how he would “restore primacy” for those who are “fighting for their economic and their real survival.” Trump replied by discussing the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which would run between Nebraska and Alberta, Canada, though President Joe Biden revoked the pipeline’s permit once he assumed office. “That’s one of just so many different things,” Trump said of the pipeline. “So what we will be doing is we will be drilling, we will be reducing energy, that will bring down inflation, that will bring down interest rates.”
“We have an economy that is incredible,” Trump added. “We have an economy that is so fragile. And the only reason it’s running now is it’s running off the fumes of what we did—what the Trump administration did. It’s just running off the fumes.” He continued: “And when there’s a crash, I hope it’s going to be during these next twelve months, because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover,” referencing the acting president during the Great Depression. “The one president—I just don’t want to be Herbert Hoover.”
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough took sharp issue with Trump’s remarks about the economy, using them as fodder for why he should not be permitted to once again run for office. "What you have to love is that he's once again exposed himself to show just how horrific of a public servant he would be," the “Morning Joe” host said. "This is a guy that admitted on television, because he's so focused on himself, that he wants Americans to hurry up and lose their jobs. He wants them to lose their savings, he wants them to lose their 401(k)s. Yes, he wants their retirement accounts to be shattered over the next 12 months. He's that desperate to be elected." Scarborough continued by asserting that “economists from left to right” will claim the economy is stronger than it has been in recent years. “It's more resilient than they ever expected it to be,” he added. “This economy, you even had conservatives, you had [Wall Street Journal editor] Gerard Baker, no fan of Joe Biden, saying one of the big winners of 2023 last year was the United States economy. It is strong."
