NEW YORK — Donald Trump used his image as a successful New York businessman to become a celebrity, a reality television star and eventually the president. Now, he finally will get to revel in one of the most visible symbols of success in the city when he rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Trump is expected to be on Wall Street to mark the morning’s ceremonial start of the day’s trading, according to four people with knowledge of his plans.
It will be a notable moment of recognition for Trump, a born-and-bred New Yorker who gave up living full time in his namesake Trump Tower in Manhattan and moved to Florida. The U.S. stock market soared after Trump won the 2024 election in part by seizing on Americans’ worries over the economy.
The ringing of the bell is a powerful symbol of U.S. capitalism — and a good New York photo opportunity at that. Despite his decades as a New York businessman, Trump has never done it before.
The people who confirmed the bell-ringing were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. It was not clear whether Trump, a Republican, would meet with New York’s embattled mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, who has warmed to Trump and has not ruled out changing his political party.
The stock exchange regularly invites celebrities and business leaders to participate in the ceremonial opening and closing of trading. During Trump’s first presidential term, his wife, Melania Trump, rang the bell to promote her “Be Best” initiative to promote children’s well-being.
After the Nov. 5 election, the S&P 500 rallied 2.5% for its best day in nearly two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,508 points, or 3.6%, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 3%. All three indexes topped records they had set in recent weeks.
Trump has long courted the business community based on his own status as a wealthy real estate developer who gained additional fame as the star of the TV show “The Apprentice” in which competitors tried to impress him with their business skills.
The larger business community has applauded his promises to hold down corporate taxes and cut regulations. But there are also concerns about his stated plans to impose broad tariffs and possibly target companies that he sees as not aligning with his own political interests.
The Republican spends the bulk of his time at his Florida home, but was in New York for weeks this spring during his hush money trial there.
He was convicted, but his lawyers are pushing for the case to be thrown out in light of his election.
While he spent hours in a Manhattan courthouse every day during his criminal trial, Trump took his presidential campaign to the streets of the heavily Democratic city, holding a rally in the Bronx and popping up at settings for working-=class New Yorkers: a bodega, a construction site and a firehouse.
Trump returned to the city in September to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Manhattan tower.
The U.S. stock market has historically tended to rise regardless of which party wins the White House, with Democrats scoring bigger average gains since 1945. But Republican control could mean big shifts in the winning and losing industries underneath the surface, and investors are adding to bets built earlier on what the higher tariffs, lower tax rates and lighter regulation that Trump favors will mean.
The ringing of the bell has been a tradition since the 1800s. The first guest to do it was a 10-year-old boy named Leonard Ross, in 1956, who won a quiz show answering questions about the stock market.
Many times, companies listing on the exchange would ring the bell at 9:30 a.m. to commemorate their initial offerings as trading began. But the appearances have become an important marker of culture and politics — something that Trump hopes to seize as he’s promised historic levels of economic growth.
The anti-apartheid advocate and South African President Nelson Mandela rang the bell, as has Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone with his castmates from the film “The Expendables.” So too have the actors Robert Downey Jr. and Jeremy Renner for an “Avengers” movie and the Olympians Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin.
In 1985, Ronald Reagan became the first sitting U.S. president to ring the bell.
“With tax reform and budget control, our economy will be free to expand to its full potential, driving the bears back into permanent hibernation,” Reagan said at the time. “We’re going to turn the bull loose.”
The crowd of traders on the floor chanted, “Ronnie! Ronnie! Ronnie!”
The Dow Jones Industrial average climbed in 1985 and 1986, but it suffered a decline in October 1987 in an event known as “Black Monday.”
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Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.