Conservatives are making apocalyptic predictions on social media in reaction to U.S. stocks falling sharply on Monday.
The drop comes in the wake of a Friday report detailing weak U.S. jobs data, which in turn is negatively affecting markets across Asia and Europe.
The NASDAQ, which lists some of the largest technology companies in the world, fell 6.3% this morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a drop of 2.6%, while the S&P 500 dipped by 3.2% on Monday as well.
And while prominent financial analysts argue that the market panic “appears disproportionate,” conservatives are seemingly convinced that the slide signals the beginning of the end.
Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysia-based Trump supporter, feigned having inside knowledge of impending chaos while blaming the stock market dip on Vice President Kamala Harris.
“You aren’t ready for what’s coming,” Cheong said. “Plan accordingly.”
On X, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) flagged a screenshot from the website Down Detector, claiming a larger financial conspiracy to restrict trading and withdrawals as the market sank.
“These brokerage firms are reporting errors for retail investors while institution investors are able to make trades. That’s too many platforms to be a coincidence. Controlled to stop panic selling in order to prevent a crash,” Greene wrote.
Over on the conspiratorial Gateway Pundit blog, commenters are reacting to the news by suggesting that World War III is about to be intentionally started by Western leaders to usher in a totalitarian world government.
“The beginning of the end is here,” one user wrote. “Don’t panic, prepare for the end. Find Christ in your lives now.”
The popular subreddit r/Conspiracy is also being flooded with remarks that suggest the modern society may be coming to an end.
“Today marks the day. Worse than Covid. All the signs are there. Everything is controlled by the government,” another said before arguing that “Democracy is dead.”
“Now, they will convert capitalism into communism. But you won’t know it. Because you will still have your digital currencies,” they continued. “You will just be like the poor. And the poor will be like you. Next is war. Welcome to the end.”
Trump likewise weighed in on the issue in a post to Truth Social in which he issued an all-caps warning.
“STOCK MARKETS ARE CRASHING, JOBS NUMBERS ARE TERRIBLE, WE ARE HEADING TO WORLD WAR lll, AND WE HAVE TWO OF THE MOST INCOMPETENT ‘LEADERS’ IN HISTORY. THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!” he said.
But not all Trump supporters warned about the end of the world. Many users on the pro-Trump message board Patriots.win pushed back on the notion that society was on the verge of collapse.
“the crash isn’t bad. way overdue with all the business built around money printer creating empty money. sooner or later show had to drop. this isn’t a real crash yet,” one said. “if history repeats. they’ll bail out investors and corporations, while you and I will get more inflation. that was what they did every other time.”
Ultimately, though, the primary talking point appears to be that the sky is falling, all due to Harris running for president. And only Trump can save the world.
As of early Monday afternoon, however, the stock market began to recover, easing fears to a small degree.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
