Experts Predict a 10% S&P 500 Rally, Trump’s “Buy Now” Call Resurfaces

A year-old Donald Trump quote urging Americans to “buy stock now” is back at the top of crypto Twitter. The clip is paired with a Wellington-Altus forecast that sees the S&P 500 climbing to 8,000 by year-end.

Analysts repackaged the May 2025 clip with analyst James Thorne’s S&P 500 targets. The argument is that risk assets, crypto included, are about to go vertical.

The Quote Behind the Meme

Trump’s verified quote came on May 8, 2025, after signing a US-UK trade deal in the Oval Office. Speaking with reporters about the rebound he expected, he kept the message short.

“You better go out and buy stock now… Let me tell you, this country will be like a rocket ship that goes straight up,” Fortune reported, citing Trump.

No “and crypto” appeared in the original clip. That phrase surfaced later in edited reels that spread across Instagram, Threads, and X.

The recycled version landed this week alongside fresh policy catalysts. The Senate Banking Committee is preparing a Thursday markup on the CLARITY Act.

Polymarket traders assign a 73% chance that the bill becomes law in 2026.

James Thorne’s Path to 8,000 for the S&P 500

Dr. James Thorne is chief market strategist at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth. He has set the S&P 500 at 8,000 by the close of 2026, with room to overshoot toward 8,400. Thorne sees a path to 14,000 by decade’s end if productivity gains hold.

Thorne attributes the move to an AI capital-expenditure supercycle, not to late-cycle excess. Data centers, power grids, nuclear capacity, and critical minerals form the spine of the thesis.

He frames the buildout as industrial rearmament rather than software hype.

Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens

Q1 2026 earnings beat estimates by roughly 27%, well above the 12% Wall Street had penciled in. Thorne argues that the gap proves analysts still underestimate AI margin leverage across sectors.

Why Crypto Latched Onto Trump’s Stock Call

The S&P 500 traded at 7,359.84 on May 12, after a record high above $7,400 on Monday. That close leaves Thorne’s target roughly 8% above current levels. Bitcoin traded at $80,263 as of this writing, softer on the session after Trump rejected Iran’s peace proposal.

Bitcoin and S&P500 Performance. Source: TradingView

Crypto desks tie the clip to a broader story. Tom Lee already forecast a sharp year-end S&P 500 surge in 2026. Trump’s separate Intel (INTC) stake has gained $47 billion since August.

Aggregator Insider Monkey now calls him the best-performing portfolio manager in Washington. It cites more than $20 billion of federal commitments across Intel, MP Materials (MP), Trilogy Metals (TMQ), and Lithium Americas (LAC).

The bets span semiconductors, rare earths, copper, and lithium. Each sits inside the supply chain Washington is trying to onshore after China’s 2025 export curbs. Equities tied to that pivot are rallying hard.

Markets price expectations, not memes. Still, the setup looks loaded. Markets get a record S&P print, rising CLARITY Act odds, and a president pushing both equities and industrial policy.