Many people described the jobs report that dropped from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on August 1 as “disappointing.”
But it wasn’t disappointing for the left and other anti-Trump redoubts. On the contrary, it was cause for celebration. Experts had expected the economy to add 110,000 jobs in July. It added only 73,000. Cue images of “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. Moreover, the robust reports from May and June were revised downwards by 285,000. Of course, bad news for Trump was good news for the denizens of the anti-Trump fever swamps.
But the joy was short-lived. Trump himself quickly weighed in to describe the numbers as “rigged.” He also noted that Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, drastically overstated job growth in March 2024 and then again in August and September, just before the 2024 presidential election. Those numbers were subsequently revised downwards by 828,000 and 112,000, respectively.
Trump concluded that McEntarfer had “faked the jobs numbers” and promptly fired her. Whether or not that was politic—or, more to the point, whether it was good politics—is perhaps a question worth considering. It was music to the ears of the anti-Trump squadrons, however, since it gave them something else to complain about. Professional anti-Trumper Anne Applebaum, for example, reposted a critical comment by Pete Buttigieg (remember him?), charging that Trump’s behavior was “very Soviet, except that Stalin then arrested and executed the statisticians.” Portraying Trump as Stalin is a change from the usual Trump as Hitler comparison, though it’s not exactly an upgrade.
I think there are essentially two things to be said about this jobs report.
First, notwithstanding the tocsins of anti-Trump fury, the report wasn’t really that bad. The left seized on it as one shred of possibly lukewarm economic news in the midst of an ocean of upbeat news—the deals with countries across the globe, the taming of inflation, unemployment hovering just above 4%, and the billions of dollars already realized through Trump’s tariffs: it presents a very robust picture overall.
I think Senator John Kennedy got it right when he noted that “This jobs report isn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t trade America’s economy today for that of any other country, thanks to President Trump.” Indeed. “To put things in perspective,” Kennedy said, “we had 9% inflation under President Biden only a few years ago.” Today? Inflation is about 2.5%.
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Author: Ruth King
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