The White House has been telling House and Senate Republicans who are nervous about the economy and the midterm election to hang in there because prosperity was just around the corner, and the better economy would carry them to victory in November.
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The idea that the economy would get better before the midterm was floated before this president had his reciprocal tariffs tossed out by the Supreme Court, and responded by replacing with a new tariff that is also likely to be deemed illegal.
Trump followed up his continuation of tariffs with a new Middle Eastern war with Iran, which has already caused gasoline prices to rise and supply chain disruptions, and the war will soon impact grocery prices.
Then came the new jobs report, which was dire.
Nonfarm payrolls fell by 92,000 for the month, compared to the estimate for 50,000 and below the downwardly revised January total of 126,000. February marked the third time in the past five months that payrolls declined, following a sharp revision showing a drop of 17,000 in December.
At the same time, the unemployment rate edged higher to 4.4% as jobs declined across key areas. A broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time positions for economic reasons moved lower, to 7.9% or 0.2 percentage point below the January level.
The situation is bad and only deteriorating more by the day, which is awful news for Republicans.
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