Trump backing off on tariffs again, as awful February jobs report roils markets

The market is down, bigly, job cuts are up, more bigly, and against this backdrop, Donald Trump is, for some reason, focused on “jerking around the entire continent of North America,” in the words of Northern Virginia Congressman Don Beyer.

“Trump keeps touching the hot stove, and unfortunately, Republicans are refusing to do the smart thing, which is to turn off the damn stove,” said Beyer, hitting Trump and Republicans over the “inane” on-again, off-again tariffs on Canada and Mexico that are killing the markets and consumer confidence, at a time when we don’t really need to have to deal with those kinds of artificial shenanigans.

It would appear, at this writing, late in the day on Thursday, that the tariffs are, again, off – though nobody really knows what is going on, least of all the business sector.

The bad news on that front: the uncertainty caused by the first round of announced tariffs last month pushed US employers to cut more than 172,000 jobs in February, according to the Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the highest total for the month since 2009 – you might remember, we were in the throes of the 2007-2009 recession back in February 2009.

The February 2025 job cuts were at the highest level for any month since July 2020 – you might remember, that was in the early stages of the COVID pandemic.

“Private companies announced plans to shed thousands of jobs last month, particularly in retail and technology. With the impact of the Department of Government Efficiency actions, as well as canceled government contracts, fear of trade wars, and bankruptcies, job cuts soared in February,“ said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and workplace expert at Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Companies are shedding jobs at recession and pandemic levels, and the markets are shedding value – just this week, the Dow is down 3.0 percent, the S&P 500 is down 3.3 percent, the NASDAQ is down 4.5 percent.

The couple two houses up from me with the “Trump: Better for the Economy” sign in their front yard might want to, you know, think about taking the sign down – much as their political god is maybe starting to realize that it’s time to turn the heat down on his pointless federal job cuts and even more pointless tariffs.

“Donald Trump’s policies of massive slash and burning and cutting contracts and ignoring the rule of law and firing people willy nilly is causing mass economic uncertainty,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.

“Stock market and other economic indicators like consumer confidence are going the wrong direction,” Kaine said. “Donald Trump and his team have suddenly decided maybe we ought to pay attention to the consequences of our actions, and if they’re hurting people, do something different.”

Kaine added that he doesn’t think the debate over the Trump tariffs is over, “but it is at least delayed again, and that’s a positive,” the senator said.

But a lot of damage has already been done.

“We’ve seen most of the stock gains that came since his election wiped out because of these tariffs against, candidly, two of our closest partners, Canada and Mexico, that at the end of the day American consumers are going to pay,” Sen, Mark Warner, D-Va., told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday.

Trump, unfortunately, still doesn’t seem to get any of this.

“This is something that we have to do,” Trump said in an Oval Office back-and-forth with reporters on Thursday. “There will always be a little short-term interruption. I don’t think it’s going to be big, but the countries and companies that have been ripping us aren’t particularly happy with what I’m doing. But the United States will be very happy. And, you know, our farmers are going to be very happy. And again, there will be disruption.”

“Interruption,” “disruption” – maybe try to sell that to the 172,000 people whose jobs were cut last month, and the hundreds of thousands who are going to be sent to the unemployment office in the months to come.

“Everything Trump does on trade seems designed to maximize chaos and uncertainty,” said Beyer, the Northern Virginia Democrat.

“This inane back-and-forth will impose severe economic costs on our nation as we lose credibility with our trading partners,” Beyer said. “Across the country businesses are delaying decisions, investments, and hiring, because they don’t know what this administration will do, and they simply can’t trust that Trump won’t pull the rug out from under them.

“All of this is bad for the economy, which is being reflected in worsening outlooks for growth, job creation, inflation and obviously the stock market,” Beyer said.