Trump Awards Medals, Comments on Stock Market and Defense Secretary

President Donald Trump on Thursday took time before awarding the country’s highest military honor to three service members to offer gratuitous commentary on the stock market and about his own Secretary of Defense while complaining that he hadn’t found a reason to award himself the decoration.

The president was just seconds into his remarks at the East Room ceremony when he postponed what he called the “very important business” at hand to say that American stock markets “just hit a new all-time high” and claim that Americans’ 401(k) retirement accounts had done the same.

Oil prices, he said, were “dropping like a rock.”

Trump then pivoted to the topic of the medals he was set to award by saying he had “higher privilege than serving as the Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces” and noting that “only a few” have received the decoration.

“I wanted to give it to myself, but I was informed I couldn't do it, and I couldn't find anything where I was actually worthy, so here we are,” he said.

After reading off names of the recipients, he said he was “pleased” that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was in the audience, referring to him as “Secretary of War” — a title last used by the Secretary of the Army before the establishment of the modern Defense Department in 1947 — and claimed that the ex-Fox News presenter has “had some good victories lately” and predicted “a lot more.”

The president’s bizarre remarks came just a day after he signed a memorandum of understanding meant to end the war he started with Iran on February 28 and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Despite his boasts about the stock market, a new poll from NPR, PBS and Marist University has found his economic approval rating has fallen so far since the start of his second term that it has now dipped below former President Joe Biden’s low-water mark of 36 percent.

According to the survey, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy while just 33 percent say they approve in some form.

The disapproval figure includes 65 percent of independents and 22 percent of Republicans.