Trump Kills His Last Chance with Biggest Blunder Yet

0:00Michael Popok:48 hours ago, the Congress Secretary Howard Lutnick declared out loud that this was now officially the Trump economy. Trump owns the economy, Lutnick said. We can now call it Trumponomics. And then came the job numbers. And more importantly, came the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who revised the job numbers from May and June and July. And the bottom fell out of the Trump-owned economy. 258 ,000 jobs, poof, disappeared from the statistics because they were fake numbers when Donald Trump first pushed them. So instead of whatever numbers he was touting in May and June, he only made 19 ,000 new jobs in June, 14 ,000 new jobs in May, and allegedly in July, 73 ,000 jobs.

0:45Michael Popok:But that's subject to revision. Well, Donald Trump didn't like that because it indicates exactly what the central banker, the Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell, has been saying all along, that job numbers are important to deciding whether rates should be cut, that inflation is important, that consumer prices going up is important, that the immigration policy of Donald Trump is important, that tariffs are important, and he wasn't ready to cut rates. And now we see why. Because just two days after the Fed decided to hold rates steady, we now know why. 258 ,000 jobs disappeared. Donald Trump's reaction?

1:20Michael Popok:Fake news. Fake numbers. Get rid of this Biden appointee. OK, let's back up and let's look at the person he just fired because he didn't like the numbers. Fire the messenger. Erica McIntarfer. Erica McIntarfer is a very well-respected economist. She worked for the Biden administration. She worked for the Trump administration. She worked for the Obama administration. She worked in the U.S. Department, the Census Department or the Census Bureau. She worked for the Census Bureau for Donald Trump. So to say she's a Biden appointee, I think, is a stretch. Plus, when she was confirmed by the Senate, there's a novel idea.

2:03Michael Popok:Have a person in a federal officer position that needs to be confirmed by the Senate. Have them confirmed by the Senate. She was confirmed, get this, 86 to 8, with only 8 dissenting votes. And you know who was part of the 86? J.D. Vance, our vice president. I mean, to get 86 senators to agree on anything is extraordinary. She is a bipartisan, a nonpartisan. She is a hardworking civil servant. And she's now out of a job because the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which in the world economy, is considered the gold standard for statistics. He didn't like the numbers. And he thought you wouldn't notice if he just posted on social media.

2:44Michael Popok:It's fake. It's rigged. Why is it rigged? He gave no evidence of how it was faked. He gave no evidence of how it's rigged. It's just to him, it's just I don't like the numbers. And now we have to deal with it. Now, this is not let me give you the how we got here moment. You're on Midas Touch, by the way. I'm Michael Popok. I'm doing the Wall Street analysis that I like to do with my background. And now let's get into it. The this is not the first time that Donald Trump started to attack statistics. I mean, there's an old joke about statistics, right? There's three types of lies, lies, damn lies and statistics.

3:23Michael Popok:But the Bureau of Labor Statistics works hard to get it right for America. But Donald Trump started as early as February in this administration, just a month in, deciding that he didn't need statistics. He didn't want to fund statisticians. He didn't want to have proper economic data reported to the American people or to the Federal Reserve. And how do I know that? Because back in February, Howard Lutnick, there we go again, Howard Lutnick decided to disband a very important group that deals with the economy. There used to be advisory committees concerning economic data. One in particular was the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee, the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee.

4:12Michael Popok:And then Howard Lutnick decided to end it because it reported to the Commerce Department and he canceled it. The entire department that gave advice to things like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other economic bureaus, he decided to literally cancel that entire advisory board. He just said, your service is no longer needed. Your job has been fulfilled. This is on February 28th of 2025. This message is brought to you by our sponsor, Americans United for Separation of Church and State. You don't destroy 250 years of secular democracy without gutting the rule of law, shattering norms, and dropping a few billion dollars.

4:54The same people in groups that back Project 2025 are part of a larger shadow network that's relentlessly pushing to impose a Christian nationalist agenda on our laws and lives. The wall between church and state is the last safeguard blocking their agenda. We at Legal AF support their goal of forming a thriving democracy that functions and advances towards its promises, along with the ability to hold personal faith-based beliefs and practices without government interference. If you're a regular here at Legal AF, you know we're all about empowering ourselves and finding ways to create hope in these wild and terrifying times.

5:31One of the places I've found hope in is the organizations like Americans United for Separation of Church and State. AU is a quiet force fighting daily to preserve freedom without favor and equality without exception for every single American. They advocate for every individual's right to believe and live as you choose, so long as you don't harm others. Something we strive to uplift and do at Legal AF every day as we lift up voices and fight for everyone's rights at the intersection of law and politics. Whether you're passionate about gender-affirming health care, reproductive rights, LGBTQ plus rights, or supporting our public schools, church-state separation touches almost every constitutional freedom.

6:13If you're looking for a way to take action and support our fundamental freedoms, join Americans United for Separation of Church and State and their growing movement, because church-state separation protects us all. Learn more and join the fight at au.org slash Legal AF. That's au.org slash Legal AF.

6:35Michael Popok:So you get rid of the economic advisors that advise the Bureau of Labor Statistics, right? You underfund the Bureau of Labor Statistics in that bill that just got passed about the budget for Donald Trump. He minused 8 % their budget. And then when you don't like the numbers, you attack the economist. You attacked, you attack this particular person, right? So, but the problem with his attack is that it makes no sense. He also said this Biden appointee, reminder, he appointed her to the Census Bureau in the past and J.D. Vance supported her as part of the vote. Okay, so let's take that off the table.

7:16Michael Popok:He said that she tried to help Biden by cooking and rigging the job numbers in his favor. Let's take a look at that. The last job number, November 1st, before the election, while Kamala Harris was running, showed only a 12 ,000 job increase in job growth, which is even lower than the numbers that Donald Trump is showing right now. Even when you revise the numbers, he's down to 19 ,000 and 14 ,000. They reported 12 ,000, same person. Same person, Erica McAntarfer. So take that off the board, that she was trying to help the Democrats. She is a non-political, governmental, lifetime economist and statistician.

8:04Michael Popok:That's what she is. Just that Donald Trump doesn't like the numbers because of what it shows. It shows that Trumponomics is failing. It's showing that Trumponomics doesn't work for the American people, that consumer prices are up 3 % in the last year since he's been president. If you went to the supermarket and you brought the same amount of money that you brought last year, you're 3 % short for anything and everything that you need. Inflation up, jobs way down. Consumer spending, discretionary consumer spending, starting to reverse and go in retrograde. If we're not in a recession, we're getting awful close to it now.

8:46Michael Popok:And no amount of Donald Trump firing the people that give out the statistics or trying to capture it, like we're back in the Soviet Union or in North Korea or China, is going to change the fact that Trump-anomics is a failure. And the tariffs are the biggest badge of failure around. I'm going to continue to follow it all. Stay here on the Midas Touch Network. Come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel. Hit the YouTube channel there as well. And I'm already hot and bothered. And we'll continue to follow everything at the intersection of law, politics, and the failing Trump economy right here. Subscribe Midas Touch.

9:25Michael Popok:Subscribe Legal AF YouTube channel. Subscribe Legal AF, the sub stack, and of course our podcast, Legal AF. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popok. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We've got some new reporting. We've got interviews.

9:58We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.