President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday — after praising his wife, Melania, as a “great” and “popular” first lady and vowing to make the American economy great again.
Standing in front of his 2024 Time “Person of the Year” cover with Melania and his two daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany, Trump thanked the NYSE for allowing him the privilege to ring the bell along with his wife and vowed to bring the economy back to its former strength during his first term in office.
“We’re going to have a tremendous run. We have to straighten out some problems, some big problems in the world. When we left, we didn’t have any of these problems. We didn’t have Russia, with Ukraine. We didn’t have Israel, October 7. We didn’t have the Afghanistan disaster,” Trump said.
“We had no inflation, and we had a very strong economy. And we’re going to do that again, but I think we’re going to even up it, because now we have experience that we didn’t have.”
The incoming commander-in-chief said it was an “honor” to ring the bell on the same day as he was declared Time magazine’s person of the year after his remarkable political comeback.
Trump’s appearance on Wall Street drew a massive crowd as people stopped by the stock exchange to catch a glimpse of the former and future president.
Tourist and Trump fan Jake Andersen said he couldn’t believe his geographical luck, staying right around the corner from the Stock Exchange.
“I think it’s awesome and it’s symbolic and I’m here taking pictures,” Andersen, 33, told The Post.
“I was listening to the news last night in my hotel and they said he’s going to ring the bell the next day and I’m about a three-minute walk from here so I said, ‘I have to be here,’” the business analyst gushed.
Andersen said he’s “optimistic” about the economy in Trump’s second term, noting, “There is an energy in the country that I did not feel before the election.”
Cole Rapp, 27, who voted for Trump all three times, had already purchased his Trump copy of Time when he noticed security swarming the Stock Exchange, which he passes on his way to work daily, and learned Trump was there.
“I’m excited that he’s ringing the bell,” he told The Post. “I definitely think Trump will be treating his people better and definitely care about our economy.”
Trump also won Time’s “Person of the Year” in 2016 after his first election victory.
