The White House has told Republicans in the House and Senate, nervous about the economy and the midterm elections, to hold on, saying prosperity is just around the corner and the better economy would carry them to victory in November.
The idea that the economy would get better before the medium term was put forward before this president’s reciprocal tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court, and responded by replacing it with a new tariff that would also likely be considered illegal.
Trump followed up his continuation of tariffs with a new war in the Middle East with Iran, which has already caused gasoline prices to rise and supply chain disruptions, and will soon impact grocery prices.
Then came the new jobs report, which was terrible.
Nonfarm payrolls fell by 92,000 this month, down from the estimate of 50,000 and below the downwardly revised January total of 126,000. February marked the third time in the past five months that payrolls fell, following a sharp revision that showed a decline of 17,000 in December.
At the same time, the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% as employment fell in key areas. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers and those working part-time for economic reasons, fell to 7.9%, or 0.2 percentage points below January’s level.
The situation is bad and only getting worse by the day, which is terrible news for Republicans.
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