Donald Trump’s pledge to deliver a booming U.S. economy is being tested by a slowing labor market, raising concerns for Republicans ahead of next year’s congressional elections, according to the Financial Times.
The latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs in August, following several months of weak growth. The numbers suggest that hiring has stalled, undercutting one of Trump’s strongest political arguments — that his trade and immigration policies have not derailed economic momentum.
“Trade policy uncertainty — and policy uncertainty in general — is causing a pullback in hiring, and it is not clear that it will be resolved anytime soon,” Omair Sharif of Inflation Insights told the FT.
Democrats quickly seized on the report. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire senator and senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee, said in an interview with the Financial Times: “Costs keep going up. Manufacturing here in the U.S. is contracting. Businesses don’t know whether to invest or hire because there’s so much uncertainty in the economy. This is a direct result of the president’s reckless tariffs and the uncertainty that he has created.”
The hardest-hit industries were those Trump once promised to revitalize. Manufacturing, construction, and energy and mining shed a combined 25,000 jobs in August, while wholesale trade lost 12,000. Erica Groshen, a former BLS commissioner, told the FT’s Swamp Notes podcast that the report was “pretty sobering,” adding: “What we see is that the U.S. economy is essentially not creating jobs.”
The downturn poses a political challenge for Trump, who has leaned heavily on economic strength to bolster approval ratings. A RealClearPolitics average shows that just 42.2 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the economy, while 54.1 percent disapprove. Though Trump himself is not on the ballot in the 2026 midterms, Republican lawmakers face the risk of voter backlash over a faltering jobs market and persistent inflation, which remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.
Some Republicans have turned their frustration inward. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon argued that Trump should dismiss Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick “before they drag the economy into a recession,” calling them “cranks” in remarks to reporters.
Trump has responded by escalating pressure on the Fed to cut interest rates, while dismissing the BLS data as incomplete. Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday, he insisted the economy remained “in excellent shape” and suggested the job numbers were subject to later corrections.
White House economic advisers echoed that view. Kevin Hassett, head of the National Economic Council, said the weak jobs figures were an “anomaly” that would likely be revised upward. “The economy is sound and inflation is low,” he told reporters, pointing to what he described as a “capital spending boom.”
Still, analysts cited by the FT warn that political damage could accumulate if conditions fail to improve. Lanhee Chen, a Stanford University policy scholar and adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, said: “[Trump] has a few more months to figure out how he wants to impact public impressions of the economy before a frame gets drawn around the midterms.”
Others argue Trump may use the slowdown to his advantage. Ylan Mui of Penta Group, a Washington consultancy, told the FT that weaker employment could strengthen Trump’s case for looser monetary policy. “Ultimately, Trump can still make the case that the solution to any perceived problem in the job market is for his administration to take more control of the economy, not less,” she said.
