Trump Takes Credit For Jobs Gains Amid Broader Economic Turmoil

President Donald Trump on Friday sought to take credit for a February surge in manufacturing jobs, citing the gains as evidence his policies are paying off even amid signs they are sparking broader turmoil across the U.S. economy.

“We gained all these jobs, 10,000 jobs, and we barely started yet,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “These numbers really reflect a lot of things that have happened since Nov. 5.”

The president’s remarks came after new economic data showed the U.S. adding 151,000 jobs last month, including significant additions in manufacturing and some other sectors like health care.

But the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1 percent, with roughly 10,000 government jobs lost through just the second week of February — offering a preview of potential larger public sector losses to come as the White House's mass firings of federal workers take full effect.

More broadly, the jobs numbers capped a week dominated by growing uncertainty over the impact of his agenda on an economy that has remained relatively resilient for the past few years. Trump's decision to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico earlier this week sent stocks spiraling downward, only for him to quickly open the door to certain reprieves — generating whiplash that sent further reverberations through financial markets. The S&P 500 was down more than 3 percent on the week, as of Friday afternoon.

During his Oval Office celebration of the jobs numbers, Trump shrugged off the public sector losses, calling them necessary to trim a federal workforce he believed had grown too large.

"We had too many people in government," he said. "This built up and got worse and worse and they just hired more and more people."

When pressed on concerns over the impact on financial markets of his trade war with Canada and Mexico, the president insisted he planned to stay the course. Though for Trump, staying the course could mean more unpredictability on tariffs, which he has imposed and curtailed on the longtime allies seemingly on a whim.

“There’ll always be changes and adjustments,” Trump said, even as he acknowledged that the tariffs could create "a little disturbance" for Americans. “There’ll always be some modifications.”

Trump characterized the exemptions for U.S. automakers as an ongoing effort to calibrate his tariffs, even as he dismissed concerns that his overall approach may drive up costs and damage the economy.

"I could have left that, and you wouldn't have had a minor change," Trump said. "Instead, I was asked by the real majors, the big majors, if I could do this."

The manufacturing job gains, he added, represented an early sign that his policies are driving fresh investment in the U.S. and prompting companies to move their operations to avoid tariffs.

Trump’s embrace of Friday’s jobs numbers also marked a notable departure from the administration’s insistence in recent weeks that the economy was still feeling the negative effects of former President Joe Biden’s policies.

In his joint address to Congress earlier this week, Trump blamed the continued soaring price of eggs on Biden. And his aides have at various points shrugged off broader signs of weakness in the economy as the lingering consequences of Biden’s policies, arguing it would take weeks or months for Trump to influence the nation’s economic trajectory.

"Could we be seeing that this economy that we inherited starting to roll a bit? Sure," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday morning.

Yet just hours later, Trump struck a different note, indicating he believed he was already steering the economy in a new direction.

"We've not only stopped that manufacturing collapse, but we've begun to rapidly reverse it and get major gains," he said.