In Trump world, bad jobs data means things are great

Things are going so well under President Donald Trump’s economic policies that there are now fewer jobs available or being created! At least, that is how Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, is spinning the dismal jobs numbers that have been rolling out under Trump’s watch. 

“There's a pretty big decline in the labor force because of illegals leaving the country,” Hassett said during a CNBC appearance on Monday. He argued that the “break-even job number is quite a bit lower” than it was during former President Joe Biden’s administration, when immigrants were “coming across the border willy-nilly.” No one should panic about weak job growth, Hassett added, because population growth is slowing while productivity is “skyrocketing.”

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Hassett: "There's a pretty big decline in the labor force because of illegals leaving the country, so the break even job number is quite a bit lower than it was under Joe Biden. So you should expect slightly smaller job numbers." pic.twitter.com/ihIex3U8Tu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2026

A little over a week ago, Hassett floated the excuse that jobs numbers were meh because “people haven’t turned the machines on yet.” On Monday, he added more word salad suggesting that the mystery machines of technology are keeping productivity high enough for the rich to continue to profit without hiring more workers. 

The good news, according to Hasset, is that jobs numbers are down because there are fewer immigrants—an outcome at odds with the Trump administration’s racist promise that fewer immigrants would mean more jobs available to native-born Americans. And better still? New technology ensures the top 1% can enjoy increased profits without the inconvenience of employing more people!

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