White House guy tries to spin disappointing job reports—using racism

Stephen Miran, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors

Stephen Miran, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Donald Trump, is leaning into racism as he attempts to spin Friday’s disappointing jobs report, which shows that the labor market is slowing in response to Trump’s ill-advised tariff policies. 

“All of the job gains since the president's inauguration were native-born Americans—all of them, right?” Miran told CNBC on Friday. “And that contrasts the last two years of a mirage of a strong labor market in which two-thirds of job gains went to foreign-born workers. That was because of the surge in immigration from the Biden administration, and everyone predicted all sorts of labor-market doom when the president closed the border to protect Americans, but the opposite has happened.”

If that’s a statistic you haven’t heard much about before, that’s because it’s misleading at best. Trump and friends have repeatedly tried to give a racist spin to their lackluster jobs reports. The term “foreign-born” refers to anyone born outside of the United States, including naturalized citizens, legal immigrants, refugees, temporary workers, and international students. Miran’s framing is a familiar “they’re taking our jobs” argument, which is baseless. 

Even the libertarian Cato Institute has debunked this argument, highlighting that the U.S. does not have enough native-born workers to meet industry demand.

Miran has been a vocal proponent of Trump’s incoherent tariff policy, so he has a lot of skin in the game. And like Trump and his closest allies, Miran leans into racism when his back is against the wall.