I
am
not
breaking
news
to
anyone
by
pointing
out
that
Donald
Trump
consistently
disparages
information
that
he
thinks
makes
him
look
bad.
Meanwhile,
any
data
that
he
thinks
casts
him
in
a
positive
light
is
inevitably
the
greatest,
the
best,
the
most
accurate
data
imaginable.
Given
that
persistent
inflation
has
been
a
chief
national
concern,
it’s
no
surprise
that
Trump
has
taken
aim
at
members
of
the
Federal
Reserve’s
governing
board
for
the
grave
crime
of
recognizing
that
inflation
has
remained
stubbornly
above
the
Fed’s
2%
target
during
the
first
year
of
Trump’s
second
term.
It
is
impossible
to
dredge
up
every
inane
insult
and
inaccurate
accusation.
It’s
probably
enough
to
recollect
that
Trump
is
trying
to
fire
Lisa
Cook
from
the
Fed
Board
of
Governors
for
made-up
nonsense
while
he
is
simultaneously,
in
an
apparent
attempt
to
win
gold
at
the
irony
Olympics,
threatening
Fed
Chair
Jerome
Powell
with
indictment
for
planning
building
renovations
that
are
too
fancy.
When
it
comes
to
the
nation’s
monthly
jobs
report,
Trump’s
astounding
hyperbole
dates
all
the
way
back
to
his
first
term.
Suffice
it
to
say,
“the
numbers
are
great”
is
among
the
tamest
comments
he’s
made
about
the
job
market
while
he’s
been
in
office,
always
regardless
of
the
reality
on
the
ground.
Trump
purged
the
Bureau
of
Labor
Statistics
in
2025,
purportedly
because
they
made
too
many
large
revisions
of
employment
data,
but
the
real
message
was
clear:
put
out
data
that
Trump
likes
or
lose
your
job
as
a
BLS
bean
counter.
There
were
great
fears
at
the
time
that
Trump’s
attacks
on
the
people
who
produce,
interpret,
and
act
upon
this
nation’s
economic
data
would
lead
to
untrustworthy
information
coming
from
official
government
sources.
Republicans
claim
to
like
to
let
the
market
decide.
Just
a
month
and
a
half
into
2026,
it
seems
the
market
has
officially
come
out
with
its
verdict:
the
numbers
produced
by
Trump’s
BLS
are
dogsh*t.
On
February
11,
the
BLS
released
its
January
jobs
report.
According
to
this
report,
nonfarm
payrolls
surged
by
130,000
last
month.
This
was
more
than
double
economists’
consensus
estimate
of
55,000
positions.
Unemployment
also
reportedly
ticked
down.
Faced
with
such
stellar
employment
numbers,
one
might
expect
the
stock
market
to
have
had
a
strong
day.
Yet,
the
S&P
500,
Dow
Jones
Industrial
Average,
and
Nasdaq
composite
all
ended
slightly
lower
at
the
close
of
trading
on
February
11.
Later
last
week,
on
Friday,
the
BLS
announced
that
annual
inflation
had
cooled
to
2.4%
for
January,
down
from
the
previous
reading
of
2.7%
and
below
economists’
expectations.
Once
again,
rather
than
reacting
positively
to
what
seemed
to
be
unequivocally
good
economic
news,
stocks
were
largely
unmoved.
The
S&P
500
and
the
Dow
Jones
each
eked
out
a
0.1%
gain
for
the
day,
while
the
Nasdaq
fell
by
0.2%.
Overall,
it
was
the
worst
week
so
far
of
2026
for
the
stock
market.
The
stock
market
is
incredibly
complex,
and
any
claim
tying
its
performance
(or
lack
thereof)
to
a
specific
news
event
should
be
viewed
with
healthy
skepticism.
That
being
said,
last
week
was
relatively
calm
in
terms
of
the
Trump
administration
excreting
other
potentially
market-moving
outrages,
so
it’s
possible
to
view
these
employment
and
inflation
numbers
in
a
little
more
isolation.
Furthermore,
inflation
and
employment
are
two
of
the
key
economic
concerns
of
this
era
that
supposedly
led
to
Trump’s
election
in
the
first
place.
If
traders
actually
believed
the
numbers
that
just
came
out
of
this
BLS,
showing
a
much
better
employment
situation
and
lower
inflation
than
economists
predicted,
the
stock
market
would
not
have
had
its
worst
week
of
the
year.
Trump
meddled
with
the
BLS,
and
it
appears
to
have
had
his
intended
result:
rosier-looking
economic
numbers.
But
the
market
hasn’t
been
fooled.
Stock
traders
appear
to
now
be
acting
more
on
real
data
that
they
can
verify
and
less
on
Trump-induced
lies.
Hopefully
the
corporate
media
soon
learns
to
follow
suit.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].