Donald Trump’s miserable job market will not even start to improve for a few more months, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has warned.
President Trump, whose handling of the economy is often cited by supporters as one of his strengths, has been hit with waves of underwhelming and disheartening job reports this year.
On the presidential election campaign trail, Trump attacked rising prices and inflation under Joe Biden, but now it seems shoppers need to show patience.
“Our economy, the Donald Trump economy, is coming in the beginning of next year,” Lutnick told Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt.
“He’s got more than $10 trillion of factories, when those factories get in the ground, they get the permits, and the bulldozers start, people are operating those bulldozers, jobs, jobs, jobs,” Lutnick said. “You’re filling to be a construction worker in America, you’re going to be good-looking, because everybody’s going to try to hire you. Those construction workers are jobs, jobs, jobs.”
He was speaking to Trump-loyal Newsmax after the latest economic misses.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data found that the U.S. added only 22,000 jobs in August, way below the 80,000 new jobs economists were expecting.
The disappointing figures arrived even after Trump fired BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer, claiming without evidence that the underwhelming job numbers were “rigged” and replacing her with Heritage Foundation economist E.J.Antoni.
Days later, the Labor Department said the economy added 911,000 fewer jobs than previously thought in the 12 months ending in March.
The misery for Trump did not end there, as the Labor Department revealed on Thursday that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits hit 263,000 in the week ending Sept. 6, an increase of 27,000 from the previous week.
That was the highest level of applications since Oct. 23, 2021, and well above the 235,000 applications forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey.
There are fears the grim job market in the U.S. may not improve any time soon, with uncertainty still looming about how Trump’s sweeping tariff plans could affect businesses, as well as whether they could have a knock-on effect on hiring decisions.
Speaking to Newsmax, Lutnick urged people to be patient, claiming that Trump’s tariff plans could result in GDP growth of up to four percent next year.
“Why was America always growing, kind of like the rest of the world? Because we were exporting our power to the rest of the world. It’s time for us to take care of America,” Lutnick said. “That’s what President Trump is doing. You’re going to see our GDP growth go off the chart.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Commerce for comment.
The post Lutnick Claims Trump’s Economy Isn’t Here Yet After Being Hit by Embarrassing Data appeared first on The Daily Beast.
