White House says Trump is 'focused on using tariffs to make America great again'
President Trump's economic policies, from tariffs to those favoring the rich in OBBBA, have been facing a lot of flak for the past year. But in January 2026, the U.S. added 130,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.3%, and the Trump administration instantly took full credit for the positive scenario. White House Deputy Press Secretary and Special Assistant to the President, Kush Desai, emphasized thatTrump's policies are result-oriented and better than previous president Joe Biden's handling of the job market while appearing on Fox News's "Mornings with Maria." "Expectation-smashing jobs report reinforces what we've been saying all along, President Trump's economic agenda has a proven track record and unleashed historic job wage and economic growth during his first term, and we're seeing the same story unfold now during a second term yesterday's job report showed a stunning 170,000 private sector jobs being added," Desai said.
"We saw unemployment take down labor force participation, take up real wages, continue to increase, and all of this is happening even though we inherited an absolute disaster from Joe Biden. Yesterday's job report showed revisions that 2 million fewer jobs were created during the last two years of the Biden presidency than we previously thought. And the jobs he did create were largely going to illegal aliens, foreigners, or to create government jobs. Meanwhile, President Trump is focused on real, sustainable private sector-led economic growth, and this is just the beginning," Desai added.
Desai further explained that Trump's policies, including a significant tax cut passed last summer, were starting to show effects. He then went on to compare Biden's past techniques, saying, "I mean, what we saw under the Biden presidency was that the private sector was being strangled by cumbersome regulations, by tax hikes, by these DEI policies, and Biden's basically relying on juking the stats by adding fake government jobs." On the contrary, President Trump emphasized a reduction in federal employment, achieving the lowest levels since 1966, while fostering private sector economic growth and maintaining a declining unemployment rate alongside robust job growth, Desai pointed out.
Desai praised Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" by stating that they were creating new jobs and also boasting the "Made in America" agenda. Desai also mentioned, "The president has used tariffs to secure over a dozen trade deals that have leveled the playing field for American workers. We've seen now fallen trade deficit and surging American exports. Thanks to the use of tariffs. We've seen trillions of dollars in investments flowing in, including the states that many of these members of Congress are from, to make and hire in America. So we're focused on implementing tariffs. The president is focused on using these tariffs to make America great again. And I think members of Congress are going to continue to realize that they're just on the wrong side of this."
He concluded by stating that there will be consequences related to the president's leadership of the Republican Party. He is seen as the one in charge, presumably guiding the party toward a new era. While he intends to support Republican candidates to maintain majority control, there's ambiguity regarding the specifics of any consequences for those who do not align with him. Public opinion appears to favor the president, suggesting that congressional members should support his agenda.
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