Donald Trump's Twitter attack on Nordstrom backfires after they drop daughter Ivanka's brand

Critics have widely accused the President of misusing public office to benefit his family’s own business

When Donald Trump criticises you on Twitter, it’s not always a bad thing.

Shares in high-end US retailer Nordstrom ended Wednesday’s trading session up more than 4 per cent on the day, after the US President launched a Twitter attack at the group, saying that it had treated his daughter “unfairly”.

Nordstrom had last week announced that it had decided to cut ties with Ivanka Trump’s line of clothing, citing declining sales, according to Reuters. But White House spokesman Sean Spicer characterised the retailer’s move as a “direct attack” on the President’s policies.

“My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by Nordstrom,” the President tweeted. “She is a great person – always pushing me to do the right thing!

“Terrible!” he wrote in the post that has since been re-tweeted over twenty thousand times.

Immediately after Mr Trump’s tweet on Wednesday afternoon, shares in Nordstrom slipped to trade around 0.5 per cent lower, but they quickly moved back into positive territory and ended the day dramatically outperforming the broader index of US retail shares and the S&P 500 benchmark.

But although shareholders in Nordstrom might have shrugged off the President’s public blasting of the stock, his actions unleashed a wave of disapproval elsewhere.

Critics widely accused Mr Trump of misusing public office to benefit his family’s own business.

“This is misuse of public office for private gains,” Richard Painter, who served as Republican President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer, said in an email to Reuters.

“And it is abuse of power because the official message is clear – Nordstrom is persona non grata with the administration.”

Mr Trump has already gained a reputation for his seemingly reckless use of social media to pan individual companies and industries. In recent months he’s sent shares in the pharmaceutical sector into a tail spin with a single comment.