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Trump’s tweets lead companies to take out crisis insurance policies – Metro US

Trump’s tweets lead companies to take out crisis insurance policies

Trump’s tweets lead companies to take out crisis insurance policies
Reuters

Amazon, Amtrak, Boeing, Facebook, Glenfiddich, Google, Lockheed Martin, Nordstrom, Mexico’s currency, the Washington Post.

The list of companies President Donald Trump has targeted on Twitter exceeds more than 60, according to Yahoo Finance’s latest count.In just 140 characters or less, the president’s tweets have cost corporations billions of dollars in revenue, sparked boycotts and spooked Wall Street traders.

In response, corporations are opting for preemptive insurance policies from public relations and crisis management firms to help them deal with any potential fallout from the president’s tweets.

According to Quartz, these firms offer strategic advice, are creating rapid response social media teams, and help companies find allies on Capitol Hill in the eventTrump turns his thumbs against their business.

“We are putting them in the same class as a natural disaster: a random event, out of the blue, with a really massive cleanup,” a senior consultant with one of these firms in Washington, D.C., told Quartz.

Take Lockheed Martin, whose stock fell about $1.2 billion after Trump tweeted in December that costs of its F-35 fighter jet are “tremendous,” and asked Boeing to “price-out” the F-18.

Just 10 days earlier,Trump took aimat Lockheed’s F-35 program; its market value dropped nearly $4 billion — or$28 million per character.

(By comparison, ExxonMobil paid about $4.3 billion in cleanup, finesand legal settlements after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill.)

Mexican currency traders have another idea: Buy Twitter.

Instead of spending billions to defend the peso, traders are somewhat jokingly suggesting Mexico buy Twitter Inc. for about $12 billion and shut it down,Bloombergreports.

Before his inauguration, Trump’s tweets sent the peso to record lows after criticizing General Motors for exporting Mexican-made cars to the United States, then taking credit for GM’s decision to cancel production on a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico.

The peso fell more than 3 percent against the dollar, untilMexico’s central bank, Banxico, intervenedto strengthen to peso. The next day, Trump tweeted again, this time targeting Toyota’s plans to build a factory in Mexico, virtually undoing Banxico’s influence.

Not all tweets have fared badly, though. Nordstrom weathered a storm earlier this month afterTrump blasted the retailerforpulling its stockof first daughter Ivanka Trump’s namesake clothing company.

Nordstrom’s stock rose 7 percent since Trump’s “terrible” tweet, but that is likely because its customer base is largely liberal, and clustered on the coasts.