The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board took stock of the latest dismal jobs report on Friday — and laid a key part of the blame for it at the feet of President Donald Trump.
"Friday’s monthly report for August confirms that job creation has stalled amid his tariff barrage," wrote the board, a frequent critic of Trump's trade policy. "Employers added a mere 22,000 jobs last month while the numbers were revised down for the previous two by a combined 21,000. This means only 107,000 new jobs were created in the last four months — an average of 27,000. Monthly job gains averaged 167,000 last year."
Even worse, the board noted, "Nearly all of the new jobs last month were in social assistance and healthcare (46,800), which rely on government spending," while manufacturing saw a loss of 38,000 jobs — meaning the public sector is propping up the Trump economy from total freefall.
It's not a mystery why any of this is happening, the board continued.
"The Occam’s razor explanation is the uncertainty and additional costs from Mr. Trump’s border taxes," they wrote. "Caterpillar estimates that tariffs will cost the equipment maker $1.8 billion this year. Deere projects a tariff hit of about $600 million, mainly from higher steel and aluminum costs. Deere is also hurting because soybean farmers have seen their market share in China shrink after its trade retaliation. Tariffs are slamming U.S. auto makers like Ford ($2 billion tariff cost this year)."
And even though Trump has done everything in his power to open up federal regulations for an oil drilling spree, "oil and gas producers say the tariffs have increased prices for materials and caused them to pull back on drilling."
The only real hope for the economy at this point, the board wrote, is if Trump loses his appeal to the Supreme Court after lower courts found his tariff scheme unconstitutional.
"What Mr. Trump needs is a broad revival in business confidence of the kind that accompanied his November victory and appeared before his tax on imports and willy-nilly interventions in private business decisions," the board concluded. "Repeat after us: Tariffs are taxes, and taxes hurt economic growth."