And that is whhat We Liberals like to Call "Math."

 

And that is what we liberals like to call “math.” 

May 2, 2025: The right-wing folks celebrated today when news was announced that the economy added 177,000 jobs in April. 

Suddenly, it was “Trump’s economy” again, not “Biden’s economy,” which he said it was, when stock prices were slumping two weeks ago. 

(To be fair, stock prices were also up today.)

 

This hard-working blogger tries to present a fair representation of reality. So, let’s look at the reaction to the jobs report on X, where the ill-informed go to offer up opinions based on nonsense. I’m not sure who started the trend here, but the MAGA types got excited and posted about the April report, citing CNN to prove they weren’t cherry picking good numbers. 

One gentleman posted, with clueless excitement: “477,000 jobs added in one month,” which in his mind proved President Trump was crushing it, since economists expected 135,000! 

MegaBigBalls25 copied that post and spread the good news, setting the MAGA faithful to cheering. 

The glad tidings went out over X, and someone named “Devory Darkins” (below) decided to spread the news even further, also without careful checking. And, still, he got 7.3 thousand likes – which is a sad commentary on the reading comprehension of the MAGA faithful, indeed. 

See if you notice anything amiss: 

 

(Head for the optometrist if you still don’t get it.) 

 

As already stated, the humble blogger tries to present an honest picture of what is going on during the second Trump administration. So let’s look at job numbers over a longer period. In 2024, the U.S. economy added 2,012,000 jobs, or 167,667 per month. 

In 2023, the U.S. economy added 2,594,000 jobs, or 216,167 per month. 

In 2022, the economy added 4,555,000 jobs, a whopping 379,583 per month. Yes. We know. Many of those jobs were added after the COVID collapse began to be reversed. And in 2021, the economy added or recovered 7,237,000 jobs – a massive recovery, any way you analyze it. 

(That’s Joe Biden’s jobs record.)

 

At this point, you are sure to get treated to a dose of the Fox News blah, blah, blah from the MAGA believers; but 177,000 is not a killer jobs report. It’s not bad; but it’s like getting socks for Christmas. 

You can use them, but you won’t be excited. 

In Trump’s first 37 months in office (January 2017-February 2020), during his first term – and before the pandemic hit – he added an average of 185,622 jobs per month (6,868,000 total). 

This blogger does not blame the COVID collapse on President Trump, even if he did suggest idiotic ways to treat infections. So, let’s credit him for a good run during the first three years he held office. 

In the same fashion, this blogger does not blame President Obama, who did inherit a mess, after the U.S. economy crashed under George W. Bush. The economy shed jobs every month, during 2008, with a Republican at the helm, and kept shedding jobs all of 2009, after a Democrat took over. 

Not till October 2010 did the situation finally stabilize – and then for the next 75 months, through December 2016, jobs were added every month, without fail. 

(We give the divided month of January 2017 to Trump, to be gracious.)

 

I will let you do the math, using this graph from the Department of Labor Statistics, and you can see who did better, per month, Obama in his last 75 months, or Trump during his first 37. 

 

Okay, I lied. I couldn’t wait to see if the MAGA faithful would do the math. I did it for them. In Obama’s last 75 months, the U.S. economy added: 

2010   488,000 in the final three months (162,667 per month)

2011   2,058,000 (171,500 per mo.)

2012   2,186,000 (182,167 per mo.)

2013   2,229,000 (191,583 per mo.)

2014   2,991,000 (249,250 per mo.)

2015   2,713,000 (226,083 per mo.)

2016   2,331,000 (194,250 per mo.)

 

That would be: 14,996,000 jobs added, or 199,947 per mo. Or you could say that Mr. Obama did far better in his second term than Trump did in his first, even before COVID shut down the economy. 

And that is what we liberals like to call “math.” 

 

UPDATE: Job numbers are revised twice before they are finalized. The May jobs report cuts the “jobs added” number for March to 120,000. The April number is also revised downward to 147,000. 

The preliminary job numbers for May are 139,000. Clearly, these are not numbers a president can brag about.