Trump touted the stock market in a surprise news briefing and then left after only a minute

• President Donald Trump only spoke for a minute at a surprise news conference on Tuesday.
• He arrived at the White House briefing room alongside Vice President Mike Pence, praised the stock market, commented on the coronavirus vaccine, and left without fielding questions from reporters.
• "The stock market's just broken 30,000. Never been broken, that number. That's a sacred number: 30,000. Nobody thought they'd ever see it," the president said.
• This is only the third time since November 3 that Trump has spoken from the White House press briefing room. He's mostly stayed out of the public eye after being trounced in the election.

President Donald Trump spoke for only one minute at a news conference on Tuesday — potentially his shortest one ever.

Upon arriving at the White House press briefing room, the president praised the Dow Jones Industrial Average's historic gains, made a comment about the coronavirus vaccine, and then walked out without taking any questions. Vice President Mike Pence stood beside him but did not speak.

"The stock market's just broken 30,000. Never been broken, that number. That's a sacred number: 30,000. Nobody thought they'd ever see it," Trump said. "That's the ninth time since the beginning of 2020, and it's the 48th time that we've broken records during the Trump administration. And I just want to congratulate all the people within the administration that worked so hard."

Reporters, who were only given brief notice that the presser was going to begin, tried to get their questions in as Trump stepped out. He ignored them.

"Well, that was weird as s---," one reporter said about the scene shortly after Trump left.

This is only the third time Trump has spoken from the briefing lectern since the election on November 3. He has not answered questions from the press in the past three weeks and has largely stayed out of the public eye following his loss.

The president's impromptu appearance come after his administration on Monday evening announced that it would formally began the transition process with President-elect Joe Biden's team. General Services Administration head Emily Murphy pledged to release "resources and services" to Biden's transition team.

Also on Monday, Biden announced former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen as his pick for Treasury Secretary. Reports noted that both of the moves on Monday prompted stocks to jump afterward.

Yet Trump seemed to take credit for the rising stocks at the briefing. He did not mention the transition process nor concede defeat to Biden.

"Remember, the GSA has been terrific, and Emily Murphy has done a great job, but the GSA does not determine who the next President of the United States will be," Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.