Washington (AP) – With its tariffs, the government’s layoffs and the freezing points, there are growing concerns that President Donald Trump contributes more to harm the US economy than to remedy it.
The labor market remains added with an unemployment rate of 4.1% and 151,000 jobs in February, and Trump likes to refer to investment obligations from Apple and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to show results.
However, the employment report on Friday also showed that the number of people who worked part -time due to the economic circumstances rose by 460,000 last month. In the areas of leisure and hospitals that reflect consumers who spend additional money, 16,000 jobs were lost. And the Federal Government lowered its salary statements by 10,000 in a potential harrest of the alarm, which is sounded by the stock exchange, consumer confidence and other measures to lead the economy.
Since January, the index of economic policy has given uncertainty 41% to a level of 334.5, which in the past signaled a recession. Nicholas Bloom, an economist from the University of Stanford and co-developer of the uncertainty index, said it was unclear how this will work, but he is concerned.
“I am increasingly afraid that we will take what could be known as the” Trump recession “.” This last recession occurred under Trump due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump seems to be a mere “disorder” with the uncertainty that he creates, and says that financial pain from import taxes, which will eventually lead to more factories to the USA and stronger growth are laid.
If Trump’s Gambit is successful, the Republican would consolidate his reputation as an unconventional leader who proved to be a doubt. But if Trump’s tariffs backward backwards, a huge part of the price of everyday Americans would be paid for, who could suffer from job losses, lower wages, higher inflation and possibly an injured feeling of national pride.
In an interview on the Air Sunday in Fox News’ Sunday morning, Trump was pushed to ensure that the agenda of his tariffs clarified, which caused uncertainty. The president has largely held his answer and blamed the decline in the stock exchange by 6% in the past two weeks.
“You know that the tariffs could rise over time and they can rise and I don’t know if it is predictability,” said the president.
The White House claims that the jobs showed on Friday that the administration’s strategy works because the manufacturers added 10,000 jobs. Of the manufacturing profits, 8,900 jobs came from the car sector, which in January recaptured some of the job losses in the industry. The White House also suggested that the loss of leisure and hospitality jobs had the result of the flu season and the people who had saved savings and credit card debt due to the term of office of President Joe Biden.
“I thought it was a really, really impressive job report,” said Kevin Hassett, director of the Weißen Haus National Economic Council, about the numbers on Friday.
Hassett said the additional factory jobs were the result of companies that are “on -horing” workers due to the upcoming tariffs.
“This is the first of many reports that will look like,” said Hassett about the attitude in the industrial sector.
The sale of the stock exchange throws doubts as to whether the tariffs will create the promised jobs.
“The markets await,” said John Silvia, CEO of Dynamic Economic Strategy. “In the obscure alley of the tariffs, a higher inflation, slower economic growth and a weaker US dollar signal. It is an economic horror film in snail-paced motion. “
Trump triggered a trade war with Canada, Mexico and China last week in the past week in order to then take a break for some of his import taxes, as the US car factory jobs and the recent efforts to contain Mexico to contain the fentanyl smuggling.
Further tariffs will come for Europe on April 2, says Trump and can possibly bring the United States into an open conflict with a continent that he rebuilt after the Second World War. South Korea, India and Brazil could also be exposed to recent tariffs, Trump said in his speech to a joint congress meeting on Tuesday.
Silvia said Trump’s tariffs have to be more targeted in terms of products and nations and are set with lower installments, and added that this would be the guarantee that solid research work supports the measures.
There were several signs of uncertainty and concerns about the tariffs in the Beige book of the Federal Reserve, a collection of anecdotes from hundreds of companies that published the Fed eight times a year.
The Beige book published on Wednesday contained 47 references to uncertainty, from only 17 in the previous edition in January.
“Many companies found increased economic uncertainty and were concerned about tariffs,” reported the New York branch of the Fed. “With a view to the future, companies were particularly less optimistic.”
“This is the perfect storm for companies,” said Brian Bethune, economist at Boston College. “How can you plan something in this environment?”
Nevertheless, the finance minister Scott Bessent said on Friday at CNBC that he saw a positive vigorous in combating inflation. He said the crude oil prices have fallen since Trump’s inauguration, as have the interest rates for 10-year-old US finance ministry and mortgages.
Nevertheless, interest rates for public debt are higher than last year in September, and the latest decline could reflect a slowdown of economic demand.
Bessent proposed a core problem that the US economy is excessively dependent on state deficits and that the Trump government would promote greater growth in the private sector.
“We have become dependent on these state expenditure and there will be a detoxification time,” he said.
This special form of economic rehab comes from Trump’s efficiency of the Ministry of Government, which is led by T-shirted Tech Mogul Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, X and SpaceX.
The alleged savings of Doge are still too impoverished to bend the disturbing path of public debt, which is largely promoted by tax revenues that are not sufficient to cover the increasing costs for social security and medicare.
However, the initiative has started to reduce the federal employee in a way that could occur in future job reports. Around 75,000 employees took the postponement. There are also thousands of federal workers who have been released and tens of thousands of layoffs that come on the plans of the administration.
When asked on Friday in the Oval Office whether the government’s layoffs could affect the entire labor market, Trump said that the economy would be great.
“I think the job market will be fantastic, but it will have highly paid manufacturing jobs,” he said. We had too many people in the government. You can’t just do that. “
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The AP economic writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.
