Animal Spirits or Manufactured Delusion? The Markets, Trump’s Narrative Machine, and the Bessent–Lutnick Show
The phrase “animal spirits” has been echoing through the financial media this week, usually in reference to the recent, inexplicable surge in investor confidence. But what does it really mean?
Economist John Maynard Keynes coined the term to describe the irrational instincts and emotional impulses that drive economic decisions—not just facts or logic, but confidence, fear, greed, and herd behavior.
And that’s precisely what we’re seeing now.
Despite deteriorating fundamentals—debt, inflation, global instability, and domestic unrest—the markets are buoyant. Tariffs loom. Military budgets swell. Consumer sentiment is jittery. And yet, Wall Street cheers. Why?
Enter Scott Bessent. And Howard Lutnick. And, of course, Donald.
Together, they’re running a confidence game—one part policy, two parts psychological manipulation.
• Bessent, a hedge fund veteran now installed as Trump’s Treasury Secretary, delivers calm assurances to the press even as he stokes volatility with artificial tariff deadlines and vague Fed threats.
• Lutnick, from Cantor Fitzgerald and now Commerce Secretary, is more performative—using every public appearance to pound the table with pro-Trump theater and economic chest-thumping.
• And Donald? He treats the stock market like a scoreboard and a smoke machine. If it’s up, he’s winning. If it’s down, he needs a new distraction. The market isn’t a reflection of policy. It’s a prop.
He continually manipulates it for personal gain—especially through the performance of stocks and crypto coins tied to his inner circle and his own portfolio.
So when commentators say “animal spirits are back”, what they really mean is this:
Confidence is being manufactured.
Truth is being suppressed.
And markets are being gamed.
There’s a reason people are calling Bessent and Lutnick liars. It’s not just about the numbers—it’s about the contradictions, the silence, the smirks, the refusal to speak plainly. They know what they’re doing. And they know we’re watching.
In Keynes’s framework, animal spirits could be a source of recovery. But in Trump’s framework, they’re something darker: a weaponized myth of confidence used to keep the markets afloat while the foundation cracks beneath us.
The real question isn’t whether animal spirits are driving the market.
The question is who’s feeding them.
