President Trump Finally Found a Retailer He Likes

Sheena Butler-Young

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After its solid second-quarter earnings results, President Donald Trump is singing the praises of Walmart.

Amid chatter of an impending recession that some say would be stoked by his trade war, the United States commander in chief took to Twitter yesterday to tout the mega retailer’s performance as a key marker of the country’s overall economic health.

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“Walmart, a great indicator as to how the U.S. is doing, just released outstanding numbers. Our Country, unlike others, is doing great! Don’t let the Fake News convince you otherwise,” President Trump tweeted Thursday.

Walmart this week upped its full-year guidance after posting Q2 earnings and sales that topped analysts’ expectations, sending its shares up 5% in intraday trading. In its earnings report, the Bentonville, Ark.-based company noted a 2.8% climb in revenues both online and in stores. Its strongest growth was in the e-commerce space, which saw a 37% rise in sales.

The results helped reassure the market which had tumbled dramatically just one day prior — marking the worse trading day in 2019 — dogged by recession and trade war fears as well as lackluster results from department store giant Macy’s.

Walmart’s performance was also likely a breath of fresh air for President Trump who has generally been on the receiving end of negative sentiments from fashion brands and retailers in recent months.

Macy’s, JCPenney, Steve Madden Ltd., Shoe Carnival and at least a couple hundred other footwear and apparel retailers  either submitted letters to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and/or testified before the group in June to oppose the president’s controversial tariffs on Chinese goods.

Since last year, Trump has introduced new tariffs on more than $200 billion in Chinese imports. His administration has also promised new levies on $300 billion worth of products, such as mobile phones, laptops and toys as well as unspecified items of footwear and apparel — although originally scheduled to take effect on Sept. 1, the additional duty on some of those goods will be suspended until Dec. 15.

President Trump has had a storied history with American retailers since he took office as well as during his White House run. He’s publicly blasted both Nordstrom and Macy’s — the former he took digs at in 2017 after it discontinued his daughter Ivanka Trump’s now defunct fashion line. In 2016, he called for consumers to boycott Macy’s, dubbing it a “very disloyal company” via Twitter.

He has also had a long history of going after e-commerce behemoth Amazon, namely criticizing its taxation procedures and what he deemed to be its preferential treatment by the United States Postal Service.

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