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Even Fox Business Can’t Spin Trump’s Terrible Jobs Numbers

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Donald Trump’s brutal July jobs report appeared to genuinely rattle the hosts at Fox Business.

Several hosts and guests sat in stunned silence on Fox Business’s Mornings With Maria, after host Maria Bartiromo announced the disastrous results of the government’s July jobs report.

As Bartiromo announced that only 73,000 jobs had been created last month, disappointed hums rippled throughout the guests, with one loosing a disheartened “wow.”

“And that’s total,” replied a disheartened-sounding Charles Payne. While the numbers of jobs created trailed the estimates by more than 30,000, the unemployment rate remained on target at 4.2 percent.

DUN-DUN-DUN -- Maria Bartiromo and company react with stunned silence to a "disappointing" jobs report showing only 73,000 jobs were created in July pic.twitter.com/E52b44BSvg

The hosts struggled to find someone to blame other than Trump, with Payne eventually landing on Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair who Trump moved to usurp Friday.

The report also included significantly revised numbers for May and June—and the difference was startling. The number of jobs created in June came down to 14,000 from the previously stated 147,000; and in May the number was 19,000, revised down from 144,000.

“It’s no wonder the market was down 300 points going into this number. Look at these revisions!” Bartiromo cried.

On the campaign trail, Trump had slammed the Biden administration for publishing massive revisions to its job numbers for the year ending in March 2024. But now his administration has seen a revision of 258,000 jobs in just two months.

Fox Business’s Moore attempted to comfort his fellow host, blaming the trade turmoil sparked by Trump’s tariffs, and tried to get her to focus on the positives. But the jobs report didn’t have much in terms of a silver lining, revealing that health care and social assistance are pretty much the only sectors hiring anymore. Bartiromo had been similarly shocked by June’s ADP jobs report.

It feels like the first eight months of Trump 2.0 have lasted a lifetime—and if deputy White House chief of staff Dan Scavino has his way, maybe they will.

On Thursday, El Salvador approved changes to its constitution to allow for indefinite presidential reelection. Scavino shared the news on X, saying “Want to see heads explode?” and “CC’ing” the president.

Though Scavino’s post is self-admittedly an attempt to spark hysteria among Americans who still care about democracy, the potential for a third Trump term is no joke. Just yesterday during an interview with Fox about Senator Josh Hawley’s stock trading bill, Senator Rand Paul objected to how Trump could hypothetically be impacted by the bill, despite its carveout for the current administration.

“Future presidents wouldn’t be allowed to own things, so Donald Trump or the next president, which, you know, or some say he might run for a third term,” Paul said on Fox Business.

And Trump himself said in March that there are “methods” for him seeking a third term—and has clarified that he is “not joking.”

In March, GOP leadership discouraged its lawmakers from holding in-person town halls amid mounting backlash to the Trump administration.

Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin was the first Republican in the state to disobey this directive. After constituents held weekly protests outside his office urging him to hold an in-person event, Steil finally relented with what his office called a “listening session.”

After months of virtual-only town halls, there was lots of listening to do.

Steil entered the Elkhorn High School auditorium on Thursday to resounding boos and faced a raucous crowd for the duration of the 80-minute session, including fierce questions on his support of Trump’s agenda, as well as frequent interruptions, chants, and jeering.

Attendees were evidently fired up over Steil’s support of Trump’s budget, poised to tilt taxes in favor of the rich while tattering the social safety net. Steil defended his vote on the bill, which is also estimated to balloon the national debt by trillions of dollars. (When the lawmaker mentioned national debt as a pressing issue, one attendee interjected: “Thanks to you!”)

He also voiced his support of Trump’s controversial immigration policies—a topic that elicited “some of the loudest boos,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Rep. Bryan Steil in Elkhorn answering questions from a rowdy town hall crowd. Lots of folks asking about Wisconsinites losing access to healthcare, tariffs, federal cuts to medical research. @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/wdpOcBYbhI

More than one person in attendance referred to the Florida immigrant detention camp callously dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” as a concentration camp, which Steil objected to. A constituent noted that “the difference between a prison or a detention center and a concentration camp is due process.”

Steil also had to address........

© New Republic