Job numbers make clear that Trump has a reality problem, not a public relations problem

A weak September jobs report undercut President Donald Trump's claim that his administration's only economic shortfall is messaging. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found employers added 29,000 positions last month, while unemployment edged up to 4. 2%. Wages rose more slowly than prices, and earlier estimates for July and August were lowered. With the revisions, July now shows a net loss of jobs, the sixth negative month since last summer. MS NOW's Steve Benen notes that no such month occurred during Joe Biden's presidency.

Over Trump's 21-month second term, the economy has gained 728,000 jobs, compared with nearly 3. 18 million in the 21 months before it. Benen's charts also show that the first year of this term was the weakest for job creation since the Great Recession, and the second year ranks second weakest.

This was the final employment report before the midterm elections. Earlier in the week, Trump called the economy the greatest in American history and said his team was doing a poor job of promotion. On CNN, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told viewers to rely on official statistics rather than surveys of opinion.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →