Authored by Duane Norman via Free Market Shooter blog,

In spite of low volumes, US stock markets made fresh all-time highs today:

The Dow Jones industrial average rose about 140 points and hit intraday and closing records, surpassing a previous all-time high of 21,391.97, which was set last week. The S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent to also reached record levels, with information technology rising 1.4 percent to lead advancers. The Nasdaq composite outperformed, rising 1.65 percent.

In an article written for Single Dude Travel and published the day Trump took office, I stated what many others have already been saying for a long time; the market is far overdue for a correction to the downside, and when the whole charade comes crashing down, President Trump is gonna wear the whole thing around his neck:

Whether it was Clinton or Trump, whomever won the Presidency was going to be saddled with $20 trillion of debt (not counting the off-the-books liabilities like Social Security, Medicare and pensions), and a stagnant economy that consists largely of welfare recipients, a defunct healthcare system, and several states and municipalities on the brink of insolvency. Not exactly a recipe for success.

Brandon Smith of Alt-Market elaborated on why Trump is the perfect person for the Deep State / Central Bankers / Globalist movements to blame for the coming market collapse…

With interest rates increasing, I would point out that market behavior has changed. The meteoric rise has stalled. In the past few months stocks have barely budged 1 percent either up or down per week. Except for last week when something strange happened; markets suddenly dropped nearly 400 points in a single day. Why? Well, that is a subject up for debate, but the majority of mainstream news outlets will tell you that it was all Donald Trump’s fault. I have been warning since long before the election that Trump’s presidency would be the perfect vehicle for central banks and international financiers to divert blame for the economic crisis that would inevitably explode once the Fed moved firmly into interest rate hikes. Every indication since my initial prediction shows that this is the case. The media was building the foundation of the narrative from the moment Trump won the election. Bloomberg was quick to publish its rather hilariously skewed propaganda on the matter, asserting that Trump was lucky to inherit an economy in ascendance and recovery because of the fiscal ingenuity of Barack Obama. This is of course utter nonsense. Obama and the Fed have created a zombie economy rotting from the inside out, nothing more. But, as Bloomberg noted rightly, any downturn within the system will indeed be blamed on the Trump administration.

…and though I disagree with Smith in the hypothesis that “Trump was the candidate the elites wanted all along,” Trump knew that the market was overvalued before he took office, and even stated as much:

“I think we’re sitting on an economic bubble. A financial bubble… We’re not at 5 percent unemployment. We’re at a number that’s probably into the 20s if you look at the real number. That was a number that was devised, statistically devised to make politicians – and in particular presidents – look good. And I wouldn’t be getting the kind of massive crowds that I’m getting if the number was a real number.” “I’m talking about a bubble where you go into a very massive recession. Hopefully not worse than that, but a very massive recession. Look, we have money that’s so cheap right now. And if I want to borrow money, I can borrow all the money I want. But I’m rich… If somebody is a great, wonderful person, going to employ lots of people, a really talented businessperson, wants to borrow money, but they’re not rich? They have no chance… Is it a good time to invest now? “Oh, I think it’s a terrible time right now… because the dollar’s so strong… You have – think of it – you have cheap money that nobody can get unless you’re rich. You have the regulators are running the banks. Not the guys that are being paid $50 million a year to run the banks. I mean, when you look at many of your friends that are running banks that are being paid $40 and $50 million, yeah, they’re not running the banks. The regulators are running the banks. You have a situation where you have an inflated stock market. It started to deflate, but then it went back up again. Usually that’s a bad sign. That’s a sign of things to come.”

Unfortunately, the market making new all-time highs on a continual basis hasn’t stopped Trump from taking credit for it. He did so on February 16th…

Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level of confidence and optimism - even before tax plan rollout! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2017

…and again on March 2nd…

Since November 8th, Election Day, the Stock Market has posted $3.2 trillion in GAINS and consumer confidence is at a 15 year high. Jobs! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 2, 2017

…and again on June 11th, in a pair of tweets which consisted of him stopping just short of taking all the credit for the market’s rally:

...way up. Regulations way down. 600,000+ new jobs added. Unemployment down to 4.3%. Business and economic enthusiasm way up- record levels! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2017

So, in spite of Trump’s prior commentary on how the real unemployment rate is not 5%, and probably closer to the 20% figure, that hasn’t stopped him from talking about how the unemployment rate has just made a fresh low in its most recent print. Go figure.

Yes, the market has rallied substantially on the back of Trump’s tax cut, Obamacare repeal, and regulation killing plans. However, to this date, no legislation has been passed, and there is no reason to think Republicans won’t end up failing to pass any of this legislation. This extra froth in the market has set the stage for the market to fall even harder.

So what’s going to happen once the market finally does hit the rails? The media is going to have its perfect target; a President they already loathe, who is taking all the credit for the success of the stock market he has already proclaimed is overvalued. Brandon Smith articulated this brilliantly…

Last week’s sudden market bloodletting is important in this regard; 400 points down is hardly a flesh wound to a 20,000 point Dow, but the media’s reaction to it was very revealing on what the future has in store. Multiple news outlets responded by immediately connecting the drop to Trump and the absurdity surrounding the “Comey memo” — a memo which no one in the public has seen proof of. The claim is that this level of turmoil around Trump might lead to impeachment and that the threat of impeachment would kill the stock market bounce which the media also claims was driven by Trump’s promises of corporate tax cuts. It’s a lie built on another lie. It is interesting to me that the mainstream media never said the market drop was caused by “Comey’s turmoil,” or by “The Washington Post and The New York Times’ turmoil.” No, they called it “Trump’s trumoil.” Last week’s stock dive was, in my opinion, the official launch of the Trump collapse narrative. The establishment was beta testing it for months, but now, the program has gone live. Every single stock decline from now on, as well as the ultimate economic crash, which will become visible to the public in short order, will be blamed on Donald Trump and conservatives by extension. As I said, he is the perfect scapegoat.

…however, he neglected to mention that the aforementioned gloating from Trump on the stock market’s all time highs is painting a monster bulls-eye on his back for the mainstream media to take aim for, when the collapse really gets going.

You can blame whoever you want for the coming calamity; Obama, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, a massive public debt, excessive entitlement spending, or any of the number of other “bubbles” currently plaguing our country’s capital markets. But, when it all explodes, Trump and all the “MAGA” voters who got him elected are going to be the ones eating all the blame that gets served up.

When it (finally) happens, don’t say I didn’t warn you.