Jim Cramer attributed the dip in the stock market on Monday to investor surprise that President Donald Trump might actually carry out his "protectionist agenda" .
"If you have any doubts that protectionism is the message, you clearly didn't watch Trump's talk to a whole bunch of CEOs about the need to buy American and hire American or face the consequences of major taxes," the " Mad Money " host said.
The one area investors can turn to right now are stocks in the Trump-free zone, Cramer said. Those are companies that do not need Trump, aren't on his bad side and can do well when the economy slows.
Trump-free stocks include FANG, Cramer's acronym for Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Amazon, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Google, and now Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL). Semiconductor companies such as Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ: SWKS) and semiconductor equipment stocks like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX) also work. The last group were the cloud plays, like Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) and Salesforce (NYSE: CRM).
Ultimately, Cramer reminded investors to take Trump for his word and suggested that Trump-free stocks like technology or domestic stocks like Comcast could work in a portfolio.
Last month, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) was downgraded to a "sell" by two different firms, as the company is believed to be front in center in a host of challenges that will hit the market in 2017: The strong dollar, political turmoil, online disintermediation and scrutiny for its use of inorganic materials and preciously wasteful manufacturing processes.
With this many difficulties, Cramer was surprised when the company guided up to 2 to 3 percent organic growth from 2 percent, which implied that market share gains and innovation were strong. Additionally, on its conference call, Procter management responded to all of these issues.
"The total sum of the call was nothing short of a stinging rebuke to those who sold this stock to buy an industrial or go into cash to flee a feared Trump-led stock market Armageddon," Cramer said.
Looking back at the dismal retail holiday numbers, Cramer boiled it all down to the erosion of Target (NYSE: TGT). The problem wasn't Macy's (NYSE: M), it wasn't Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) or even J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP). It was Target.
"It is doing the best online of all the brick-and-mortar retailers. And this ugly quarter is what ultimately happens. That is a pretty grim fate for the group," he said.
Target found itself in one of the worst possible situations, Cramer said. Its online offerings were so good it was stealing traffic from its own bricks-and-mortar stores. The self-cannibalization of Target was the sorriest event of the entire retail debacle this holiday season.