Fox host vexed by Biden’s good job numbers finds a solution – give the credit to Trump

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo risked ridicule on her own show on Friday when she asked whether the latest better-than-expected US job numbers delivered by Joe Biden’s administration were “too good”.

The American economy again blew past expectations in March, adding a further 303,000 jobs for the 39th straight month of employment growth in what is surely good news for Mr Biden as he seeks re-election in November.

After a panellist admitted the latest figure was “a good number, no question”, Bartiromo – who helped promote Donald Trump’s false claims that he was cheated out of victory in the 2020 election – seemed determined to put a negative spin on what is unequivocally great news  for the president.

“Well it’s a good number but is it too good for rates cuts?” she asked.

Finding no room for manoeuvre there, she subsequently tacked right and found a way to give Republican presidential candidate Mr Trump the credit for the job growth statistics, rather than the man who has been overseeing the economy from the White House for the past three years and two months.

“I just wonder if maybe the market is pricing in a little bit, and employers too, the idea that maybe we’re gonna get a new president in November,” she speculated.

In addition to the headline number, Friday’s figures also revealed that the US unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged at 3.8 per cent while healthcare, government and construction proved the sectors adding the greatest numbers of jobs, posting 72,000, 71,000 and 39,000 respectively.

The data also reveals that the country’s leisure and hospitality sectors grew by 49,000 jobs and have therefore returned to pre-pandemic levels.

As for President Biden himself, he said in a statement: “Today’s report marks a milestone in America’s comeback.

“Three years ago, I inherited an economy on the brink. With today’s report of 303,000 new jobs in March, we have passed the milestone of 15m jobs created since I took office.”

However, despite his ongoing success, Mr Biden has struggled to win over a majority of the American public on his stewardship of the economy.

A Wall Street Journal poll of seven swing states revealed this week that 54 per cent of voters in Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada think that Mr Trump would be better at handling the economy.

The same survey found that 31 per cent of swing state voters think the economy is “not so good” and 33 per cent think it is “poor”.

Mr Trump and Republicans have repeatedly asked voters if they were better off now than they were four years ago, a message that appears to be making headway despite the fact that the economy went into free-fall in spring 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill.

The former president has himself previously claimed that any good economic numbers during Mr Biden’s presidency must be a reflection of people expecting a second Trump term. While in the White House Mr Trump repeatedly denied any credit to his predecessor, Barack Obama, for the strong economic numbers that he inherited from him, falsely claiming that the US economy only began strengthening when he was elected.