Trump panics over pitiful jobs report, Brunswick Beacon

Brunswick Beacon, 08.14.25

July added just 73,000 jobs. May and June were revised downward by 258,000, for a net loss of 185,000 jobs. Unemployment hit 4.2%, the highest rate since COVID. 

“Clearly the tariffs policy is starting to bite into the labor market,” said Elizabeth Crofoot, senior economist at labor studies firm Lightcast. Yale’s Budget Lab says Trump’s tariffs will cost 500,000 jobs this year. Fox economist Stephen Moore blamed Trump. “This disappointing number is a result of all the turmoil over tariffs and trade wars.” 

The stock market had its worst week since April’s bloodbath, when Trump announced his on-again-off-again tariffs. The Wall Street Journal called it “the dumbest trade war in history.” 

Trump freaked out over July’s awful report. He fired Erika McEntarffer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The senate confirmed McEntarffer last year, 86-6. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President Vance, then senators, voted for her. So did NC’s Republican senators Budd and Tillis. 

Trump’s lie that “Today’s jobs numbers were “rigged” to make Republicans, and ME, look bad” is beyond pathetic. Last November, Trump praised McEntarffer’s report showing just 12,000 jobs, prompting this Guardian headline: “Shock US jobs data could not have come at a worse time for Kamala Harris.” 

“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary said, “Whacking statisticians makes no sense whatsoever. You don’t shoot the messenger.” CNBC’s Steve Liesman said Trump “wants to turn the BLS into Pravda!” 

Economist Jessica Riedl at the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research called it “banana republic stuff. Trump just ensured that we should not trust any government data coming out of his administration. Why trust data from agencies when the director’s job depends on altering any bad economic news?” 

Like the narcissistic rants of a tin-pot tyrant or conniption fits of a toddler in the throes of the terrible twos, Trump’s infantile temper tantrums aren’t Making America Great. They’re Making America a Banana Republic. 

Vince Amoroso 

Sunset Beach