One of Trump’s economic advisers grasped at excuses for Trump’s pitiful job growth numbers on CNN Friday morning, citing “seasonal adjustment quirks around teachers,” among other reasons.
July’s job numbers came in far lower than anticipated, and the administration issued revisions for stated job growth in May and June—reducing nearly 260,000 jobs off its last two reports. Stephen Miran, the chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, attempted to explain the chasm between prediction and reality.
CNN reporter Kate Bolduan pointed out that this marks the weakest month of jobs growth since December 2020, during the pandemic. Bolduan asked Miran what he attributed those numbers to, if not “the uncertainty created, in part, by the president’s trade war.” Miran rattled off reasons.
“About 40 percent of that is due to seasonal adjustment quirks around teachers, some of it is due to declining foreign-born employment, even as we created more American-born employment, and that is going to net out in a way that you see ultimately reflected in the data like that,” Miran said.
CNN points out that June turned out to be the weakest month of jobs growth since December 2020 — the last full month of Trump’s first term pic.twitter.com/mkxbGYzTOM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 1, 2025
“Seasonal quirks” could hardly be responsible for such a massive revision, given that they occur, predictably, every year.
“Finally, there’s the uncertainty: Don’t forget, we are in the midst of restructuring the global trading system in a way that hasn’t been done in decades,” Miran said, echoing Bolduan’s assumption that the trade war was to blame, in so many words. “The president is standing up for American workers and American firms for the first time in decades,” Miran argued, “and of course that was going to induce some uncertainty.”
Miran was later asked about an auto parts maker in Detroit that blamed Trump’s tariffs after being forced to shut down a warehouse and lay off 100 workers. “It’s always convenient to blame political changes when your business fails,” he replied curtly.
May through July has been the weakest three-month period for job growth since December 2020, reported independent journalist Jamie Dupree on X. The next-weakest period was in the aftermath of the 2008 recession.
If we must rely on Trump’s unwavering commitment to his stated tariff rates and deadlines, we may be heading back in that direction.