FITSNews Political Stock Index: 3/17/2025

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It was another up-and-down week for U.S. president Donald Trump. On Saturday afternoon, he announced the first military action of his second presidency – a powerful missile strike against Houthi terrorists in Yemen. Diplomatically, both sides in the Russia-Ukraine War appear to be grudgingly inching toward peace talks. Trump also took steps to gut the U.S. Department of Education, and Congress gave his administration the “breathing room” he requested on the budget by passing a continuing resolution – keeping the federal government funded for another six months.  

But it was a different story with his deepening — and often contradictory — round of tariffs. You need a flow chart to follow all of that activity. The upshot was looming trade wars sent Wall Street into a tailspin. The markets continued their selloff and entered “correction” territory, though they closed the week with big gains on Friday. And gold passed the $3,000 an ounce threshold for the first time ever, too.   

Whose stock is actively moving as a result of all this action? Let’s find out…

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Every Monday, we track the rising and falling fortunes of national politicos via the ‘FITSNews Political Stock Index.’ And every Tuesday, we publish the ‘Palmetto Political Stock Index’ – which looks at politicos from our home state of South Carolina, host of the quadrennial “First in the Nation” (for Democrats) and “First in the South” (for Republicans) presidential primaries.

Got a hot “stock tip” for either of these indices? Email Will Folks (here) and/or Mark Powell (here).

Where should you invest your national political capital this week? To the index…

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JOHN THUNE & MIKE JOHNSON

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STOCK: RISING

Shepherding a continuing resolution (a “CR” in Washington parlance) through the halls of Congress is no small task in normal times. And as everyone recognizes, these times are far from normal. A few weeks ago, it looked as though Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson faced a Herculean challenge.

With the GOP majority in each chamber razor thin (especially in the House) – and with fiscal conservatives digging in their heels on the right flank – the outcome looked dicey. On the other side of the aisle, Democrats were caught in a classic Catch-22: Would they be loyal to their party’s philosophy (that the federal government is a force for good and must be kept open and functioning at all cost), even if that meant handing Trump a legislative victory? Or would they draw a line in the sand by abandoning their fundamental principles to defeat Trump?

More on that Waterloo in a moment…  

It took lots of phone calls from the White House – begging and brow beating, much arm-twisting, and a dash of good luck for Republicans – but when all was said and done, Friday’s midnight deadline came and went without a shutdown.

The only Republicans to vote against it were two Kentuckians: Thomas Massie in the House and Rand Paul in the Senate.

While the CR’s passage postponed this worn-out melodrama for another six months, it did represent big personal wins for Thune and Johnson. It was Thune’s first major test since becoming majority leader in January. For Johnson, it means the speaker’s gravel will likely remain firmly in his hand till fall. 

The losers in all this: American citizens, who remain on the hook for a $36.22 trillion federal debt with no strategy in place for even making a dent in it.

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DEMOCRATIC CIVIL WAR

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STOCK: RISING

Capitol Hill Democrats are openly at war with one another. Our index reported last week that the party remained in disarray after November’s defeat at the ballot box. By week’s end, the situation had escalated to DEFCON 1.

As mentioned earlier, a San Andreas-level fault line divided Democrats over the CR. And the differences were glaringly apparent in the two chambers. Only one Democrat (Jared Golden of Maine) defected party ranks and voted with Republicans to pass it. Meaning House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had whipped hard to vote no, delivered his caucus almost entirely intact. 

On the other end of Capitol Hill, it was a different story. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told his caucus to vote for the deal. In the end, passage was made possible by ten Democrats who sided with the GOP. Trump took to social media afterward to praise Schumer, saying what he did took “guts and courage.” 

Then, all hell broke loose.

Progressive and liberal Democrats dubbed the Senate vote the “Schumer surrender.”

“There is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. “And this is not just about progressive Democrats. This is across the board — the entire party.”

Some Democrats are even urging “The Squad” leader to primary fellow New Yorker Schumer.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was heard actually screaming during lunch with Democratic colleagues—through closed heavy doors, no less. 

Then, Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi plunged in, demanding Senate Democrat leaders “listen to the women,” a reference to “appropriations leaders” Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

There’s also the damage sustained to the Jeffries-Schumer working relationship. Never the closest of allies, the two Brooklyn natives had forged a functioning way to get along—until last week. Now, a case of bad blood exists.

A former top Pelosi aide summed it up this way: “Trump had given this party a gift — yet we’ve found a way to squander it.” 

Polls confirm as much. According to a CNN poll released on Sunday (March 16, 2025), a mere 29% of respondents had a favorable impression of the party compared to 54% who viewed Democrats unfavorably. Democrats’ approval was the lowest the survey had ever recorded, although the left-of-center network quickly moved to pin the abysmal numbers on the failure of party leaders “to stand up to President Trump.”

An NBC poll also released on Sunday painted an even worse picture for Democrats. According to its data, only 27% of respondents viewed the party positively – a record low for the poll. Meanwhile, looking at intensity, only 7% of respondents viewed the party “very favorably,” also a record low. Conversely, 55% of respondents viewed the party unfavorably – including 38% who viewed it “very negatively.”

D.C. Democrats may not be paying attention to how their conduct is viewed these days. But the American people certainly are… and they clearly don’t like what they see. 

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PETE BUTTIGIEG

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STOCK: RISING

Actions speak louder than words. We told you last week how California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s flip-flop on biological males competing in women’s sports signaled his intention to seek the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. Ditto for another prominent Dem.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on Thursday he’s passing on a run for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat next year – widely seen as a sign he plans on mounting a 2028 White House bid.

You’ll recall the former South Bend, Indiana chief executive made a name for himself as “Mayor Pete” when he sought his party’s nomination in 2020. Joe Biden then made him transportation secretary. Buttigieg’s performance in the post was spotty at best. (Exhibit A: The badly bungled federal response to the 2023 train derailment and resulting hazardous chemical burn in East Palestine, Ohio.)    

But that’s of secondary importance in today’s Democratic Party. As an openly gay man, Buttigieg is viewed by many as a champion of Identity Politics, which prioritizes what someone is above their personal skills and abilities.

The next presidential primaries are still 1,075 days away. A lot can change in that time. But Buttigieg’s emerging candidacy, combined with the election of new Democratic National Committee leadership last month, strongly suggests the nominee selection process in 2028 will look an awful lot like 2020 and 2024.     

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TESLA

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STOCK: HOLDING

A transgender person walked onto a car lot and…

It sounds like the start of a joke. But nobody is laughing about what happened in Loveland, Colorado, recently. Justin Thomas Nelson, a 42-year-old who goes by the name “Lucy Grace Nelson” and lives with his mother due to “emotional problems,” hurled Molotov cocktails at vehicles at a Telsa dealership.

He now faces federal malicious destruction charges for it.

It wasn’t a one-off incident. The EV carmaker has endured a slew of similar attacks around the country, including this news outlet’s reporting on vandalism at a North Charleston Tesla charging station.

Tesla stock has suffered over the past six months, shedding half its value. The sell-off accelerated when company head Elon Musk was tapped to head Trump’s DOGE government efficiency push. 

To help his friend in his time of need, Trump held a Tesla car show on the White House lawn on Tuesday. He sat with Musk riding shotgun in a shiny red Tesla Model S and even said he’d write a check for $80,000 to gift one of the vehicles to his 17-year-old granddaughter.

The wisdom of endorsing a commercial product on government property is highly questionable (and Democrats are already demanding an investigation). We’re concerned with political ramifications, though.

For years, progressives hailed Tesla as a glittering foretaste of what lay ahead in their carbon-free Brave New World. EVs feed their preoccupation with climate change at the expense of all other issues, and they couldn’t say enough nice things about Musk or his company.

But that was before Musk hopped aboard the MAGA bandwagon, endorsed Trump and started delivering a dose of DOGE to D.C.

Now, in a classic application of situational ethics, Musk is seen as Satan incarnate in the eyes of those same progressives – with a disturbing number of them venting their displeasure through criminal behavior. It remains to be seen if Republicans will step forward and become Tesla’s new customer base. But with an $80,000 sticker price, don’t count on it.

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