I’m not breaking information to anybody by stating that Donald Trump persistently disparages info that he thinks makes him look unhealthy. In the meantime, any knowledge that he thinks casts him in a constructive mild is inevitably the best, one of the best, probably the most correct knowledge possible.
Provided that persistent inflation has been a chief nationwide concern, it’s no shock that Trump has taken intention at members of the Federal Reserve’s governing board for the grave crime of recognizing that inflation has remained stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% goal in the course of the first yr of Trump’s second time period. It’s inconceivable to dredge up each inane insult and inaccurate accusation. It’s in all probability sufficient to remember that Trump is trying to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed Board of Governors for made-up nonsense whereas he’s concurrently, in an obvious try to win gold on the irony Olympics, threatening Fed Chair Jerome Powell with indictment for planning constructing renovations which might be too fancy.
With regards to the nation’s month-to-month jobs report, Trump’s astounding hyperbole dates all the best way again to his first time period. Suffice it to say, “the numbers are nice” is among the tamest comments he’s made in regards to the job market whereas he’s been in workplace, at all times whatever the actuality on the bottom.
Trump purged the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2025, purportedly as a result of they made too many giant revisions of employment knowledge, however the actual message was clear: put out knowledge that Trump likes or lose your job as a BLS bean counter. There have been nice fears on the time that Trump’s assaults on the individuals who produce, interpret, and act upon this nation’s financial knowledge would result in untrustworthy info coming from official authorities sources.
Republicans declare to love to let the market resolve. Only a month and a half into 2026, it appears the market has formally come out with its verdict: the numbers produced by Trump’s BLS are dogsh*t.
On February 11, the BLS launched its January jobs report. Based on this report, nonfarm payrolls surged by 130,000 final month. This was greater than double economists’ consensus estimate of 55,000 positions. Unemployment additionally reportedly ticked down.
Confronted with such stellar employment numbers, one may count on the inventory market to have had a robust day. But, the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Common, and Nasdaq composite all ended slightly lower on the shut of buying and selling on February 11.
Later final week, on Friday, the BLS introduced that annual inflation had cooled to 2.4% for January, down from the earlier studying of two.7% and beneath economists’ expectations. As soon as once more, moderately than reacting positively to what appeared to be unequivocally good financial information, shares had been largely unmoved. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones every eked out a 0.1% acquire for the day, whereas the Nasdaq fell by 0.2%. Total, it was the worst week so far of 2026 for the inventory market.
The inventory market is extremely complicated, and any declare tying its efficiency (or lack thereof) to a particular information occasion ought to be considered with wholesome skepticism. That being mentioned, final week was comparatively calm when it comes to the Trump administration excreting different doubtlessly market-moving outrages, so it’s doable to view these employment and inflation numbers in somewhat extra isolation. Moreover, inflation and employment are two of the important thing financial considerations of this period that supposedly led to Trump’s election within the first place. If merchants really believed the numbers that simply got here out of this BLS, exhibiting a a lot better employment state of affairs and decrease inflation than economists predicted, the inventory market wouldn’t have had its worst week of the yr.
Trump meddled with the BLS, and it seems to have had his meant consequence: rosier-looking financial numbers. However the market hasn’t been fooled. Inventory merchants seem to now be performing extra on actual knowledge that they’ll confirm and fewer on Trump-induced lies. Hopefully the company media quickly learns to comply with swimsuit.
Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and creator of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate hyperlink). He has taught authorized writing, written for all kinds of publications, and made it each his enterprise and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are in all probability pure gold, however are nonetheless solely his personal and shouldn’t be attributed to any group with which he’s affiliated. He wouldn’t need to share the credit score anyway. He could be reached at [email protected].
