Trump on 'phony' jobs report: Unemployment is really '21 percent'

Adding one more conspiracy theory to his resume on Monday, Donald Trump suggested that President Barack Obama's team had concocted a "phony" 7.8 percent unemployment number and that the real unemployment rate could be as high as 21 percent.

Earlier this month Former, GE CEO Jack Welch spawned a “jobs truthers” front after he tweeted that an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent was “unbelievable,” and added that the “Chicago guys” in Obama’s campaign headquarters “will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.”

Trump told the hosts of Fox & Friends on Monday that Welch got it right.

"They're not real numbers because the 7.8 [percent] -- as Jack Welch said and he took a lot of heat for saying it, but he's right -- I guarantee you're going to have a correction right after the election," the billionaire reality star explained. "The 7.8 is not a real number. The real number is 15 percent, 16 percent, people even say 21 percent."

"So, it's a phony number," he added. "I don't know how they allow it to get out there, but I guarantee you, as you're sitting there after the election, that number is going to be corrected substantially upward. And everybody knows it."

Trump also had some advice for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney prior to Tuesday night's second debate with Obama.

"I don't think he has to prepare too much," Trump explained. "He's a smart guy. He's a good leader. He has it. He gets it for this country. He really gets it. And I will say this, if Obama has a performance like he had a couple of weeks ago, I don't believe it's possible for him to win the election."

"Who knows? Did he become more intelligent in the last two weeks? You tell me."

Watch this video from Fox News' Fox & Friends via Media Matters, broadcast Oct. 15, 2012.

[Photo: Lev Radin / Shutterstock.com]