The wheels have really fallen off the wagon this week for President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, with the economy losing 92,000 jobs in February, oil and gas prices surging, the stock market posting steep declines, and the war in Iran quickly spiraling out of control with no end in sight.
The spate of bad news is the exact opposite of what Trump promised to do if voters returned him to the White House. And if things remain this bad, November will be an annihilation for the GOP at the ballot box.
A delve into the economic data shows just how grim things really are.
The 92,000 monthly job losses in February, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, were far less than the 50,000 jobs economists expected the economy to add last month. The BLS also revised December’s number down, sending it into negative territory and showing that the economy has lost jobs in five of the last nine months.
That means that job growth since April—when Trump first announced his idiotic and illegal tariffs—has been virtually zero.
“Here’s the point to remember about the brutal negative revisions in today’s job market report: They aren’t saying the labor market showed green shoots that withered. It’s saying that there never were any green shoots. They were an illusion,” University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers wrote in a post on X, referring to January’s positive job report that made economists wonder if things were on the rise.
Worse yet is that oil and gas prices are surging as the war Trump launched in Iran has negatively impacted the world’s supply, as export facilities have been hit by drone strikes and the Strait of Hormuz—a major shipping corridor that transports Middle Eastern oil and gas—has been choked off by Iran.
It’s led gas prices to surge all across the United States, with prices jumping a whopping 11% a gallon on Tuesday—the largest one-day increase since 2022.
“Every additional day the disruption continues compounds the problem,” Patrick De Haan, a gas price expert who runs the website GasBuddy, wrote in an article posted on X. “Even if the Strait reopened immediately, the market would still face the challenge of catching up on days’ worth of missing shipments—an increasingly difficult task as the backlog grows.”
Worse yet is that Qatar, one of the world’s top oil producers, warned that the war could cause oil prices to surge to $150 per barrel—which would likely push gas prices over $4 per gallon.
“Given current market conditions, the national average price of gasoline could climb toward $3.50 to $3.70 per gallon in the coming days if oil continues rising and supply disruptions persist,” De Haan wrote.
Both economic indicators—the job losses and gas price surges—have now spooked investors, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 1,700 points since Monday and the Nasdaq composite down roughly 400 points.
And if you think the horrible news would make Trump rethink his policy decisions … well you’d be wrong.
He’s only doubled down on his tariff agenda, and vowed on Friday that the only way the U.S. will stop waging war against Iran is if they agree to “unconditional surrender.”
“After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. ‘MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).'”
You know what Americans didn’t vote for? Making other countries great while we here at home suffer.
“I’ve seen a lot of Presidents fall short of their promises but I’ve never seen any President just doing the opposite of everything promised on purpose,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) wrote in a post on X. “Prices, Epstein, wars. Just absolutely racing to betray his voters.”
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