Donald Trump says he hopes economy tanks this election year 'because I don't want to be Herbert Hoover'

WASHINGTON − Former President Donald Trump seems to be rooting for a financial crash this year so that it can help him get reelected.

“When there’s a crash − I hope it’s gonna be during this next 12 months, because I don't want to be Herbert Hoover," Trump told interviewer Lou Dobbs on the "Lindell TV" platform.

Hoover was president during the stock market crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression.

The White House and President Joe Biden's reelection campaign said Trump and the Republicans are willing to hurt the middle class for their own political benefit.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates, noting that consumer confidence is rising, inflation is falling, and employment is up, said "a commander-in-chief’s duty is to always put the American people first; never to hope that hard-working families suffer economic pain for their own political benefit."

Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden's campaign manager, said that “Donald Trump should just say he doesn’t give a damn about people, because that’s exactly what he’s telling the American people."

Trump, who described the economy as "fragile," has been predicting calamity under Biden for years. But most economic indicators at the present time are favorable as the economy recovers from COVID-era shutdowns.

Democrats and commentators said Trump is rooting for failure that would hurt millions of Americans in order to attack Biden.

"It's just another manifestation of the insensitivity and the grotesqueness of this person," said House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaking on MSNBC.