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Jobs surge, Trump fumes
The United States added 162,000 jobs in August and kept the unemployment rate at 4.1%, but President Donald Trump used the Oval Office to complain about inflation and interest rates after the jobs report, calling it “crazy” that stock markets fell on Friday on inflation concerns.
““Success does not cause inflation. Stupidity causes inflation,” Trump vented in the Oval Office”
Trump said, “Success does not cause inflation. Stupidity causes inflation,” as he objected to the idea that the surprise gain of 162,000 jobs could contribute to inflationary pressures.
The report came as Trump said the U.S. could retaliate by stopping trade with foreign countries, and the national debt had already surpassed $40 trillion while the 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield rose to 4.79% on Friday.
In the same coverage, Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, said the “administration’s credibility on growth, inflation, rates, debt and deficit dynamics” had taken a hit because of “outsized predictions that are not aligned with economic reality.”
Pressure campaign meets Fed
As the Federal Reserve nears a Sept. 15-16 meeting, the Trump administration has mounted a broad public pressure campaign, with CNBC describing that the president, vice president, Treasury secretary and a senior economic counselor urged the Fed not to raise rates and in some cases to cut them.
CNBC reported that Trump escalated pressure by threatening to halt trade with countries that run trade surpluses with the U.S. unless the Fed cuts interest rates, and that Peter Navarro warned a rate hike would be “careless” and “would hit precisely the sectors America needs to prosper most.”
The BBC said Trump called for interest rates to be cut later this month, claiming higher rates put the U.S. at a “very unfair disadvantage,” and it quoted him saying, “The Fed Board, with its great new leader, must get smart - BE PATRIOTS for a change.”
Markets and Fed-watchers were also reacting to the jobs data, with CNN Económica saying the report boosted bets on rate hikes and that traders lifted the odds of a rate increase at the Fed’s meetings on September 15-16, with short-dated interest-rate futures implying a rise to about 65%.
In Jackson Hole, the Fed chair Kevin Warsh signaled a focus on inflation, and the BBC noted that rates were left unchanged between 3.5% and 3.75% in July for the fifth time in a row while inflation remained above the Fed’s 2% annual target.
What’s at stake next
The jobs report’s upside did not end the wage-and-inflation gap, with NBC News reporting wage growth at 3.1% year-over-year in August while Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Timmerman said it was “the fly in the ointment,” adding that “with oil prices poised to nudge inflation higher, real wages remain vulnerable during the balance of the year.”
““the fly in the ointment,” adding that “with oil prices poised to nudge inflation higher”
NBC News also tied the next policy decision to inflation timing, saying August inflation data won’t be released until Sept. 11, while the Fed was widely expected to raise rates before the end of the year due to rising energy prices from the wars in Iran and Ukraine and continued trade tensions.
The Guardian described the labor market as adding 162,000 jobs in August while unemployment held steady at 4.1%, but it also pointed to inflation’s rise since the start of the war with Iran, saying the annual inflation rate went from 2.4% in February to 3.4% in July.
In parallel, Al Jazeera reported that job gains were led by local government education, accounting for nearly 42,000 of the jobs added as the 2026–27 school year begins, and it said food service jobs added 59,000 jobs for August compared with the month prior.
With the Fed’s next move looming, Al Jazeera said CME Group’s FedWatch had a 60 percent chance of a 25 basis point rate increase to 3.75–4.00 percent, up from 49 percent on Thursday, even as Trump pushed for rate cuts and threatened to “stop trading with countries with which we have a deficit” if the central bank did not cut rates.