Citing jobs, Trump claims victory over virus, economic collapse,

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump effectively claimed victory over the economic crisis and COVID-19 on Friday as well as major progress against racial inequality, heartily embracing a better-than-expected jobs report in hopes of convincing a discouraged nation he deserves another four years in office.

In lengthy White House remarks amid sweeping social unrest, a still-rising virus death toll and Depression-level unemployment, the Republican president focused on what he said was improvement in all areas.

The president also addressed the protests, which have calmed in recent days, that followed the death of George Floyd, the black man who died last week when a white police officer knelt for minutes on his neck.

Claiming improvements everywhere, Trump said, “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country. … This is a great, great day in terms of equality.” closed 2.6% higher on the news. The S&P is now just 5.7% below its pre-pandemic peak, after plummeting 34%.

An exultant Trump seized on the report as evidence that the economy is going to come back from the coronavirus crisis like a “rocket ship.”

“This shows that what we’ve been doing is right,” said the president, who has pushed governors aggressively to reopen their economies amid warnings from public health officials that the country is risking a second wave of infections on top of the one that has killed over 100,000 Americans.

Kamins and other economists credited the government’s small-business lending effort, the Paycheck Protection Program, with encouraging employers to rehire. Overall, Washington has provided about $3 trillion in emergency relief funds during the crisis.

Nearly all industries added jobs last month, a sharp reversal from April, when almost all cut them. Hotels and restaurants added 1.2 million jobs in May, after shedding 7.5 million. Retailers gained 368,000, after losing nearly 2.3 million in the previous month. Construction companies added 464,000 after cutting 995,000.

The crisis has also exposed wide disparities that may have contributed to the unrest set off in many U.S. cities by the death last week of George Floyd: While the unemployment rate for white Americans was 12.4% in May, it was 17.6% for Hispanics and 16.8% for African Americans.