Politics & Government

White House on jobs report: ‘May have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now’

By Brian Murphy

bmurphy@mcclatchy.com

March 10, 2017 02:59 PM

White House: President says jobs report "may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now"

Following the release of a promising jobs report for the month of February, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer credited President Trump's policies for the news. According to Spicer, Trump, who has criticised the report before becoming preside
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Following the release of a promising jobs report for the month of February, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer credited President Trump's policies for the news. According to Spicer, Trump, who has criticised the report before becoming preside
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Before he became president, Donald Trump often blasted encouraging job reports under President Barack Obama, claiming they were manipulated or deceiving.

But after a promising jobs report for February — Trump’s first full month as president — Trump took full credit and offered no questions about the accuracy of the report. He retweeted a message from The Drudge Report, trumpeting the report, which claimed 235,000 jobs gained in February.

“I talked to the president prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly, ‘They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now,’ ” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said when asked about Trump’s previous questions about the accuracy of the monthly jobs report.

Spicer’s tweet came 22 minutes after the Labor Department’s report. There is a federal rule that bars executive branch employees from publicly commenting for an hour after the release time, according to The New York Times.

Spicer was asked about it at the press conference and said the information had been widely reported.

The economy added 237,000 jobs in February 2016 and 238,000 jobs in February of 2015, according to CNNMoney, putting this year’s number right in line.

There are also questions about how much credit Trump should get for the jobs report, given that he’s been in office for about 50 days and has yet to pass major economic legislation. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, who served as labor secretary under Obama, said it was “humorous” that Trump was claiming credit for the jobs report.

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