Donald Trump's personal weapon of mass destruction fired again. This time, the target of Trump's all-conquering Twitter account became the Russian ruble. Neither the Russian government nor the central bank of the Russian Federation has such a powerful force as 146 characters on Twitter. A small message can do much more than all Russian financial institutions combined.
The tweet reported that Russia probably will not miss the upcoming midterm elections in the US and will not only put forward its own candidates, but also interfere in the polling stations computer networks. "Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!" he added. Right after that, the ruble went down once again. Thanks to the only tweet the dollar grew by more than a ruble, as far as the euro. This happened in less than 40 minutes. After a recent meeting with Vladimir Putin Trump had the impression that "Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election", and markets perceived it as a warning about the sanctions regime strengthening. The more useful sanctions are imposed, the lower the ruble falls.
It is worth noting that Trump often manipulates the ruble exchange rate. Before that, just a couple of months ago, after a tweet about the readiness to attack Syria with American missiles, the dollar rate instantly exceeded the important psychological mark of 65 rubles, and the euro then jumped to 80.5 rubles.
