The cost of some groceries and other goods remains stubbornly high. The price of gasoline is starting to soar. And the labor market is heading in the wrong direction, after employers last month slashed jobs by the thousands.
Together, the developments might suggest that the U.S. economy was under heightened strain. But the White House on Friday continued to project optimism about the nation’s trajectory, insisting that President Trump’s agenda is working — and that any recent turbulence would soon prove short-lived.
“I think it’s consistent with everything else we’re seeing, which is the economy is really strong,” Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, maintained in an appearance on CNBC.
Mr. Hassett offered his positive take shortly after the Trump administration encountered its latest speed bump: a dour hiring report for February, which showed a loss of 92,000 jobs and an uptick in the country’s unemployment rate to 4.4 percent.
Describing the finding as a “surprise,” Mr. Hassett attributed the contraction to many factors outside the president’s control, including poor weather in parts of the country, worker strikes on the West Coast and methodological changes at the federal agency that produces the monthly jobs data.
Still, Mr. Hassett added that he expected a surge in overall growth once Mr. Trump’s agenda comes fully online. And he maintained that, on average across multiple months, “it’s about what we expect to be seeing.”
“The pessimists really need to understand that, as the U.S. gets richer, and richer and richer, that it creates more jobs for folks, and it’s a good thing,” he said.
The comments spoke to both the strategy of the White House — and the political stakes for the president — at a vexing moment for the economy entering a fraught midterm election season.
The nation is on track for robust growth this year, particularly as artificial intelligence makes some workers more productive. But that growth has largely occurred without a corresponding uptick in employment, except in limited sectors like health care.
Wages have generally been steady, and under Mr. Trump’s tax law, some workers may soon see the added boost of a hefty tax return this spring. But that alone has not been enough to assuage Americans’ concerns about inflation at a moment when prices, while improved, are still rising faster than the Federal Reserve would like.
One of Mr. Trump’s main talking points — the low price of a gallon of gasoline — has also started to spike in recent days as a result of the war with Iran, which has set off panic about a prolonged disruption in oil shipments globally. The national average was $3.32 per gallon by Friday, up from $2.98 a gallon the week before, according to AAA.
But Mr. Trump and his top aides largely shrugged off higher gas prices all week, describing the increase as just another temporary blip.
“So, if we have a little high oil prices for a little while,” the president said at one point, “as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop.”
On Friday, Mr. Hassett added that the administration had held early talks about steps it might take to lower oil prices as the conflict continues. But he appeared to suggest that the White House would not release oil from the nation’s strategic reserve, saying there “has been no discussion that suggests that any time soon that would happen.”
Otherwise, he offered an optimistic take about the trajectory of the conflict. Citing the “extreme success of our military,” he said that the “things that oil markets are concerned about will be less and less relevant relatively soon.”
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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