It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is. The New York Times will never give President Donald Trump’s economy the time of day, even if the data is clearly pointing to a significant upswing.
Following news that the economy added a whopping 172,000 jobs that completely eclipsed the consensus estimate for an 80,000 increase and saw significant upward revisions for the prior two months, Times financial markets reporter Joe Rennison published one of the newspaper’s nuttier spins, which is a feat unto itself: “Stocks Slide as Investors See Rates Rising After Strong Jobs Data.”
The story was not how the data illustrated how all the talk about an impending Trump “recession” was a load of hogwash. Instead, the story became about investors predictably getting the heebie-jeebies that a much-stronger-than-expected labor market would give the Federal Reserve less reasons to cut interest rates.
Rennison somehow found a way to incorporate the most upside-down interpretation of good news and pass it off as straight reporting:
Stocks slumped on Friday, ending a long run of weekly gains, after stronger-than-expected jobs data raised investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates elevated to keep the economy from overheating.
Rennison kept beating that drum: “Higher interest rates raise borrowing costs and lower stock valuations over time, weighing on the market.” Newsflash Rennison: This is not the story!
Even anti-Trump Navy Federal Chief Economist Heather Long had to admit that the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics signaled that the so-called “hiring recession is over.” University of Michigan economist [and MS NOW regular] Justin Wolfers went as far as to say during an ABC News Live segment based on the jobs numbers that “it's time to stop talking about the word recession.” He stated further: “Recessions don't happen when the labor markets motoring along like this.”
It was Rennison himself who stated during an October 20, 2025, Times podcast when the stock market was bumbling along that “there is this relationship between markets and the economy, even if they don’t always send exactly the same message.” Funny how that works now that the jobs market is upending much of the economic doom porn and the impulsive traders in the stock market are making predictable moves trying to anticipate futures as a result. Perhaps the economy is sending a different message than the stock market is at this particular snapshot in time?
Jobs boom? Jobs bust? It doesn’t matter: According to The Times’s logic, Trump loses either way. Remember, this is the same publication that went as far as to make 1.1 percent GDP growth during the first quarter of 2023 under the Biden administration out to be good news.
