After using social media and the rumor mill to treat the US stock market like its own private pump n' dump scheme, the Trump administration had all the dumb money believing that trade talks with China were going pretty well on Friday afternoon. 

In fact, the manipulation of sentiment was going so well that the SPX looks like this with 10 minutes to go in the trading day:

But, like any squad, the Plunge Protection Team is only as strong as its weakest player. 

Even after all those years in Hollywood, Steve Mnuchin still sucks at improv.