Delayed jobs report released tomorrow. Expect Trump to act a fool to deflect

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/us/politics/white-house-jobs.html

Ahead of Jobs Report, White House Seeks to Downplay Any Slowdown
President Trump’s top aides have argued in recent days that the economy is strong, even if new data on Wednesday show sluggish hiring.


Top White House officials have started trying to downplay a highly anticipated jobs report set for release on Wednesday, insisting that the U.S. economy remains strong even if the data may ultimately show a fresh slowdown in hiring.

The source of the administration’s concern is the next monthly update from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will offer a more official look at hiring in January as well as a revised glimpse at the state of U.S. employment over the past year.

Many analysts expect that federal report to show sluggishness in the labor market, echoing a series of unofficial, private-sector gauges in recent weeks, which have found “lackluster” hiring, an uptick in layoffs and little change in the number of new job postings.

For President Trump, a dour jobs report could prove politically noxious, further complicating his work to convince a skeptical electorate that his agenda has yielded meaningful improvements for the economy. To that end, his top aides have fanned the airwaves in a bid to mount an early rebuttal, arguing that a low hiring number for January won’t tell the full story about the labor market at the start of the year.