Key Words: Trump tells Hannity he’s ‘very happy’ with Wall Street gains http://ift.tt/2hD4WtG

In a wide-ranging interview on Fox News that touched on familiar themes, President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he’s “very happy” with Wall Street’s big gains this year.

Speaking to Sean Hannity, Trump touted the stock market’s $5.2 trillion in gains since his election, although he went on to compare it to the amount of the national debt, an apples-and-oranges situation.

“So you could say, in one sense, we’re really increasing values. And maybe in a sense we’re reducing debt.”

President Donald Trump

“The country, we took it over and owed over $20 trillion,” Trump said. “As you know, the last eight years, they borrowed more than it did in the whole history of our country. So they borrowed more than $10 trillion, right? And yet, we picked up $5.2 trillion just in the stock market. Possibly picked up the whole thing in the first nine months, in terms of value. So you could say, in one sense, we’re really increasing values. And maybe in a sense we’re reducing debt. But we’re very honored by it.”

It was unclear in what sense Trump believes the stock market’s gains may help reduce the national debt, as the two are not connected.

On other matters, Trump said that while it would be “wonderful” to find a solution to protect immigrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, any protections for so-called Dreamers must also include funding for a new border wall and tighter immigration restrictions, both of which congressional Democrats oppose.

Trump also said that the problem of North Korea’s nuclear program dates back decades, and should have been resolved by his predecessor.

“It should have been handled by numerous – not just Obama, but certainly President Obama should have taken care of it. . . . We can’t allow this to happen,” he said.

Speaking about the national anthem controversy in the NFL, Trump said the league should have suspended Colin Kaepernick for his protests last year. “You cannot disrespect our country, our flag, our anthem, you cannot do that,” Trump said.