On Thursday, the federal government released jobs numbers for June, revealing that the unemployment rate had sunk to 11.1 percent following somewhat higher numbers amidst the original peaks of the Coronavirus pandemic, which forced closures across the economy. Now, the economy is stumbling yet again as Coronavirus cases balloon across the country to new record totals — but at a Thursday press conference held to celebrate the still incredibly dismal jobs numbers, President Donald Trump did not effectively acknowledge these lingering issues. He offered a glib, self-congratulatory assessment of the situation that was flatly disconnected from reality.
For starters — he praised the unemployment situation, although according to the numbers out of the federal government itself, more than one in ten members of the entire labor force remain jobless. It’s still bad.
He commented:
‘The unemployment rate fell by more than two percentage points, down to just about 11 percent. We’re down to the 11 percent number. We started at a number very much higher than that, and as you know, we broke the record last month, and we broke it again this month in an even bigger way.’
The President of the United States held press event this morning to brag about the unemployment rate being above 11 percent pic.twitter.com/R9B8o4mJYx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 2, 2020
Records for economic spikes mean little when the beginning point is staggeringly dismal. Tens of millions of people filed unemployment claims amidst the original bulk of the pandemic — it takes a lot more than a drop of a few percentage points in the unemployment rate to get the nation recovered. Considering the lasting issues, economist Paul Krugman insisted the latest jobs report “will be a monument to delusion, not an indicator of success,” since, as he added, “reopening brought a substantial bounce in jobs, but also a surge in Covid-19 cases, which already appears to have stalled recovery.”
The real economic story: reopening brought a substantial bounce in jobs, but also a surge in Covid-19 cases, which already appears to have stalled recovery. This is probably about as good as it gets. And we still have double-digit unemployment 1/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) July 2, 2020
By the time reality sets in in the form of health care crisis and sagging economic numbers, it will be too late to avoid both a huge death toll and a long period of stagnation or worse. If Trump loses — likely but not certain — Biden will face one hell of a mess 3/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) July 2, 2020
Trump is ignoring the fact that just this week, the U.S. broke its record for the most cases reported in a single day yet again. Thursday, he commented:
‘We are… getting under control. Some areas were very hard hit, [and] are now doing very well. Some were doing very well, and we thought they may be gone, and they flare up, and we’re putting out the fires. But other places were long before us, and they’re now — it’s a life, it’s got a life, and we’re putting out that life, because that’s a bad life that we’re talking about.’
Despite record new US case numbers, Trump claims the coronavirus is “getting under control,” then goes on a weird rant about how the virus has “got a life, and we’re putting out that life, because that’s a bad life that we’re talking about.” pic.twitter.com/gf4VMsxgn3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 2, 2020
