Trump himself has personally tanked various stocks over the past two years by attacking their parent companies on Twitter or talking nonsense in front of television cameras, but sources say he privately blames Steve Mnuchin for that.
Sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal say Trump has in recent weeks privately blamed his Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin for volatility in the stock market, the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy, the failure of his trade war and everything else in between.
I for one have no intention of defending Steve Mnuchin, but I do feel compelled to point out that this is not how anything works.
In fact, Trump's diagnosis of his problems is completely incoherent as is his possible solution.
In conversations with advisers in recent weeks, Mr. Trump also has voiced displeasure with Mr. Mnuchin over the turbulent stock market and the Treasury chief’s skepticism toward the sort of punitive trade actions the White House has taken against China, the people said.
Looking back to his appointment of Mr. Mnuchin in 2016, Mr. Trump has mused to advisers about whether he should have tapped someone else, mentioning JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive James Dimon as an alternative. A spokesman for Mr. Dimon declined to comment.
If Steve Mnuchin had fully embraced Trump's "punitive trade actions" as Trump wishes, the market would be in an even worse position than it is today.
Jamie Dimon is not a protectionist who would have embraced Trump's actions. If Trump had nominated Dimon, he would have been a less dorky version of Mnuchin. And Dimon probably would have quit even before Trump's former economic adviser Gary Cohn did.
The Wall Street Journal's sources say Mnuchin is not necessarily at risk of losing his job, but I doubt he'll remain by Trump's side for the next two years. I expect we'll see departures from the Trump regime accelerate once Democrats officially take control of the House of Representatives in January.