Dark clouds formed over President Trump’s economy Friday after the July jobs report showed the labor market only gaining 106,000 jobs over the last three months.

The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggested the economy and labor market are much weaker than previously thought, and will raise questions about whether the president’s tariff regime is keeping businesses from hiring.

The combination of the dismal jobs report and rising inflation also raises disturbing questions about whether the economy is in stagflation, where unemployment rises with prices.

Trump’s response to the report was furious: He fired BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer, accusing her, without evidence, of politicizing previous BLS reports in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.

In doing so, Trump cast doubt on whether future jobs reports, which are analyzed carefully around the world for signals about the U.S. economy, will be politicized and inaccurate.

Markets reacted dismally to the news, marking their worst day drop since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 542 points to finish down 1.2 percent on the day. The S&P 500 lost 1.6 percent of its value, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 2.3 percent.

The president fumed over the poor economic news this week, posting on Truth Social that “today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad” and telling reporters “we need someone honest” at BLS.

The economy added 73,000 jobs in July, well below economists’ expectations of around 100,000.

More significant were the massive downward revisions over the past two months. The economy added just 14,000 jobs in June, after the number was initially reported as 147,000. Only 19,000 jobs were added in May after initially being reported as 144,000. The combined revisions showed 258,000 fewer jobs in the economy.

The Labor Department described the revisions as abnormally large in their monthly release. Asked why they were so big, a representative for the department told The Hill that new information had come in and pointed to employment levels in the state and local........

© The Hill