WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday touted the state of the economy following the release of the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, crediting his tariffs and threatening a new one on Canada, even as economists brace for the potential impact on prices. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Donald Trump on Friday touted the state of the economy following the release of the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, crediting his tariffs and threatening a new one on Canada, even as economists brace for the potential impact on prices
  • Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump praised what he characterized as the strength of February’s report, showing U.S. employers added solid 151,000 jobs last month as January’s hiring numbers were revised up to 125,000
  • It comes as concerns loom over a bubbling trade war and the Trump administration’s wide-scale campaigns to downsize the federal workforce and carry out mass deportations
  • Even after backing off some of his much anticipated tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Thursday, just two days after officially imposing them, Trump on Friday levied a new threat against Canada, saying he may add a new reciprocal tariff on dairy and lumber from the country Monday or Tuesday if not “as early as today"

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump praised what he characterized as the strength of February’s report, showing U.S. employers added a solid 151,000 jobs last month as January’s hiring numbers were revised down to 125,000 from 143,000 initially. 

The job market has been remarkably resilient over the past year despite high interest rates but it comes as concerns loom over a bubbling trade war and the Trump administration’s wide-scale campaigns to downsize the federal workforce and carry out mass deportations. 

The impacts of such efforts, particularly the slashing of the federal government being carried out by Elon Musk via the U.S. DOGE Service, weren’t expected to have much impact on the February jobs numbers. The Labor Department conducted its survey of employers too early in the month for the full scope of DOGE layoffs to show up, although it still showed a decrease in employment of 10,000 within the federal government. 

Reciting some of the statistics from the report, the president touted the percentage of job gains that occurred in the private sector, laying out a clear goal for reports to come that aligns with DOGE efforts: “We’re trying to shrink government and grow the private sector.”

Trump has specifically honed in on job growth for native-born Americans as opposed to foreign-born as he has presented immigration and cracking down on the border as a central issue of his presidency. He noted an additional 280,000 people born in the U.S. were employed in February from the month prior while the number of employed foreign-born workers decreased. 

“Now, you know, you've heard the same stat where foreign workers were taking up all the jobs, or almost all the jobs, in some cases, literally all of the jobs,” Trump declared. “And now it's 284,000 native-born jobs here, people born in our country — 284,000 — while foreign-born workers went down by 87,000. First time that's happened in a long time.” 

But Trump spent most of his time on the employment report focused on manufacturing jobs, as he pledged to turn around the loss of plants and factories from the U.S. through his use of tariffs, which have already been deployed in an on-again, off-again style over the last few days that have rattled stock markets. 

“We already have numerous that are being built or starting to be built, and numerous that were being built in other countries, and they stopped, and they're coming here now because of the tariffs” Trump said. “And that's a big deal.”

Even after backing off some of his much-anticipated tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Thursday, just two days after officially imposing them, Trump on Friday levied a new threat against Canada, saying he may add a new reciprocal tariff on dairy and lumber from the country Monday or Tuesday, if not “as early as today.” 

“Canada has been ripping us off for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products — 250%," he said. "Nobody ever talks about that — 250% tariff, which is taking advantage of our farmers. So that’s not going to happen anymore. They’ll be met with the exact same tariff unless they drop it.”

Economists have warned the duties could negatively impact inflation, and Trump himself said there may be a disturbance for Americans in his joint address to Congress this week. 

But Trump is banking on his levies charging companies that manufacture products outside of the U.S. driving production to move back to America. The president’s director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, added in the Oval Office that new investments announced since Trump has taken office have not shown up yet in employment. 

“And if you want to forecast the future numbers, everybody, just keep in mind that President Trump has already gotten us 1.7 trillion [dollars] in commitments of new factories, and those haven't even happened yet. Those aren't even in the numbers." 

As part of that effort, Trump doubled down on the idea he first floated in his address to Congress on Tuesday that lawmakers should do away with the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, signed by former President Joe Biden in 2022 and designed to promote semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. 

“It's just a waste of money,” Trump said of the bill in the Oval Office, before noting his announcement Monday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which also previously received money from the CHIPS Act during Biden’s administration, was investing $100 billion to build new factories in the U.S.

“The greatest chip company in the world — one of the greatest companies. I didn't give them 10 cents,” he said. “They came here because of tariffs, because they didn't want to pay the tariffs.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.