Market turmoil gives Trump his first big brush with economic adversity

After an opening year of nothing but political fights, President Donald Trump now faces his first bout with economic adversity.

It's not about current economic conditions, which remain solid. The economy continues to grow with strong public confidence, declining unemployment and low inflation — facts that have placed a floor under Trump's historically weak approval ratings and helped them edge back up to 40 percent in the Gallup Poll last week.

But the market turmoil in recent days poses a new test. The president has explicitly adopted the stock market as a measure of his performance. In his State of the Union address just a week ago, he touted record share prices and wealth creation.

On Monday, Trump simply omitted that familiar boast when he addressed workers at a plant in Ohio, with the Dow plummeting even as he spoke. After a lower open, Wall Street turned higher in early trading Tuesday.

Previous presidents tended to shy away from hailing market rises to avoid that very awkwardness. Markets go down as well as up for reasons no White House can control.