Trump on surprising jobless numbers: 'We're opening with a bang'
President Donald Trump said Friday "we're bringing our jobs back" as he held a news conference to tout May's surprising jobless numbers out about two hours earlier -- the unemployment rate declining to 13.3 percent -- not rising to near 20 percent that even one of his own economists had predicted.
"We want to get all of this finished," he said, speaking in the White House Rose Garden about the economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"This leads to a long period of growth," he added. "Now we're opening, and we're opening with a bang."
"We've been talking about a V. This is a rocket ship," he said. "This is far better than a V."
He said smart analysts were proven wrong about their unemployment predictions.
“I think it was one of the greatest miscalculations in the history of business shows, business shows talking about Wall Street,” he said.
"It will all work out," Trump said, later adding, "the best numbers are yet to come."
Earlier, he tweeted, "Really Big Jobs Report. Great going President Trump (kidding but true)!"
In doing so, Trump broke a federal rule prohibiting the executive branch from commenting on the jobs report within an hour of its release, instead tweeting within minutes of its release, at 8:33 a.m. ET, in order to take credit.
April's unemployment rate had hit 14.7 percent.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett had warned that the unemployment rate could hit near 20 percent in May or June -- a level not seen since the Great Depression
In May, 2.5 million jobs were added, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, appearing to add momentum to Trump's strategy of reopening the economy -- a key to his reelection hopes -- after much of it was shut down amid the pandemic.
Congressional Democrats have been pushing an addition $3 trillion stimulus package and additional unemployment insurance, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the numbers came out that it was not a time to be "joyous," saying on MSNBC that without more aid from Washington gains could quickly "evaporate."
