President Donald Trump’s propaganda outlets are struggling to articulate a clear message as his sclerotic rollout of tariffs trigger widespread economic turbulence.

U.S. stock markets tumbled on Monday after Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that he could not rule out the possibility of a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 both suffered their worst day of the year, losing more than 2%, while the NASDAQ Composite fell 4%, its worst day since September 2022.

“The rout extended a miserable month for markets that has seen all three major indexes wipe out their gains since the US presidential election in November,” CNN reported. “The widespread selloff was mostly driven by anxiety about the impact of Trump’s tariffs.”

Here’s how the MAGA stalwarts on Fox News and Newsmax responded on Monday night.

Fox’s Watters and Hannity pretended the market fall didn’t happen

On Monday night, Fox prime-time host Jesse Watters did not mention the stock market decline outside of a passing comment about “a few rocky days on Wall Street,” instead focusing his attention on stories about how Democrats are “living a nightmare,” former first lady Michelle Obama’s forthcoming podcast, and Trump “cleaning up Biden’s mess.”

But the collapse did not go entirely unaddressed on Watters’ show. For the night’s final segment, Watters sent a producer to “explore” the political views of Gen Zers by interviewing spring breakers on the beach in Florida. When the producer asked the bathing suit-clad young people to identify the issue most important to them, one guy answered, “The stock market crashing.”

Fox host Sean Hannity didn’t send a producer to the beach, so on his program the market decline went unmentioned — his lead story was a “Hannity investigation” of “Biden’s Spending Spree.”

Fox’s Ingraham gently warned Trump about his tariffs’ potential political impact

Fox host Laura Ingraham opened her Monday program with a monologue criticizing Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) for, among other things, her “potty mouth.” But after that was over, she turned to the second-most-important story of the day: The economy.

Ingraham began the segment by noting the “rocky ride for the markets today,” which she attributed to how “businesses hate uncertainty, and for many the fentanyl tariffs, they just don't compute.”

The host walked a tightrope during the subsequent interview with Fox’s Maria Bartiromo, offering some mild criticism of the impact of Trump’s economic policy, which she carefully caveated by making clear that she supported the president’s goals.

Ingraham portrayed herself as “very pro-tariff” and a strong supporter of Trump’s China tariffs in his first term, adding that the public can’t “process” “the fentanyl tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and then China gets only 10%, then we're doing a summit with China.”

She later argued that the public needed to wait to see the benefits from the tariffs, saying, “People don't also understand right at this moment, or maybe they can't see, or they don't really care, some of these businesses, is the economic boom that will happen when manufacturing returns.”

But she added that the lag could have political consequences, asking, “Will the voters in the midterms, depending on how long this uncertainty goes on, maybe it's not so long, the voters in the midterms, will they be patient? That, I think, is the question.”

Newsmax’s Schmitt and Kelly said that Trump knows best

The hosts of Fox competitor Newsmax apparently saw the stock market drop as an opportunity to portray themselves as the most sycophantic Trump supporters.

Rob Schmitt made the case that the market collapse was actually a good sign.

“It is important to remember as you look at the markets, that as most Americans were gutted by inflation these last three years, those same markets as indicators were skyrocketing,” he said, “So perhaps stocks need to take a nosedive so the working man can get a little relief from all of this inflation.”

And Greg Kelly argued, as his show’s on-screen text put it, that “Trump Has Always Known What’s Best For The U.S.” and that viewers are “Better Off Listening To Trump Since He’s Proven To Always Be Right.”

“Everybody needs to calm down a little bit, and have some faith,” he said, claiming that “the mainstream media, the establishment, Democrats, a lot of RINOs out there, they want people to be panicked so all this stuff gets reversed.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters