President Donald Trump told supporters in Mississippi on Monday night that soaring retirement accounts under his administration have done more than pad Americans’ savings. He said they have also put the spark back in their marriages.
Trump was speaking at a midterm campaign rally in Corinth, Mississippi, on behalf of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith when he turned to the stock market and the 401(k) accounts held by millions of working Americans.
During the speech, Trump touted the market’s performance since his return to office, claiming it had reached 88 all-time record highs since the election. He then urged the crowd to check how their 401(k) accounts were doing, saying they had performed so well that men were thanking him for reviving their marriages.
The president described men who told him their wives now see them as investing geniuses, playfully acting out a conversation between a husband and wife in which the wife praises his financial skills and he tells her the account is up 64%.
“They didn’t do a damn thing,” Trump joked, crediting the market’s gains rather than the husbands’ investing prowess.
The president then returned to a story he has told before about a New York police officer. Trump said the officer told him his wife had always looked down on his finances because his 401(k) had been stagnant for years, but now considers him a financial genius, and that the turnaround had given his whole life a tremendous boost.
It is not the first time Trump has shared the anecdote on the campaign trail. At a February rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, part of his “affordability and economy tour,” Trump also spoke about the officer and how the man’s home life had changed.
The Mississippi stop comes as Republicans fight to hold on to their narrow congressional majorities ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and as the president leans heavily on economic messaging to make the case for GOP candidates.
Hyde-Smith, who has represented Mississippi in the Senate since 2018, has been one of the president’s steadfast allies in the upper chamber, and Trump’s appearance in Corinth was aimed at energizing Republican voters in the final stretch of the campaign.
The rally also highlighted the challenge facing the White House on the economy. A CNBC All-America Economic Survey published last week put Trump’s economic approval rating at 34%, 31 points underwater.
Still, the president has made the stock market’s run a centerpiece of his pitch to voters, arguing that Americans with retirement savings have seen real gains under his leadership and urging them to keep Republicans in control of Congress so those policies can continue.
Whether the market numbers will be enough to sway voters worried about everyday costs remains to be seen. But Trump made clear on Monday that he believes rising retirement balances are a message that resonates, both at the ballot box and, apparently, at the kitchen table.
