Trump advisor praises Biden economy: 'Throw away the ballot box and recognize the numbers'

02 February 2024

Friday's jobs report showed that in January of 2024, the US economy added more than 353,000 non-farm jobs, and that workers' wages went up by more than 4% since January of 2023. And Larry Kudlow — who served as director of the National Economic Council in former President Donald Trump's administration — wasn't hesitant to give President Joe Biden his due.

"We had a blowout jobs report, more than twice the consensus expectation [of 180,000 projected jobs added]," Kudlow said on Fox Business on Friday afternoon. "I know that many of my conservative friends are trying to drill holes in this report. But you know what, folks? It is what it is. It's a very strong report. Not every economic stat should be viewed through a political lens."

"I've been in this business a very long time, and sometimes you just need to throw away the ballot box and recognize the numbers," he added. "This was a very strong report."

Kudlow pointed to several other factors in the jobs report that pointed to a strong economy, like an increase in the rate of productivity (output per hour) and wage increases being higher than expected for Americans. The January jobs report showed a three-month increase of 4.5% in inflation-adjusted (real) wages.

"Typical working families got a nice, real, wage boost," Kudlow said.

Biden's economy has continued to defy post-pandemic expectations. In 2022, economic experts predicted a recession in 2023 that never materialized. Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics told CNBC in December of 2022 that the Federal Reserve consistently increasing interest rates made borrowing more costly, which typically leads to less spending and economic contraction.

"We’ve seen this story before. When inflation picks up and the Fed responds by pushing up interest rates, the economy ultimately caves under the weight of higher interest rates," Zandi said. "CEOs never talk about recessions. Now it seems CEOs are falling over themselves to say we’re falling into a recession. ... Every person on TV says recession. Every economist says recession. I’ve never seen anything like it."

Watch the video of Kudlow's remarks below, or by clicking here.

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