A Fox Business host swiftly changed gears after a jobs report she hyped up failed to meet expectations.
Maria Bartiromo was speaking to North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer about President Donald Trump’s megabill on Wednesday when payroll processing firm ADP released its national employment report for June.
“President Trump is talking about this bill leading to growth in the economy. We are waiting any moment now to get the jobs numbers,” Bartiromo said. “The expectations call for the ADP numbers to be up 95,000 for the month of June.”
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But when the ADP report showed that the private sector lost 33,000 jobs last month—the first drop in more than two years—the Fox host had to redirect the conversation.
“Right now, [I’m] seeing the number actually show a decline in jobs, down 33,000 on ADP,” she said before quickly pivoting to the Golden Dome missile defense system touted by Trump.
“Senator, you introduced a bill supporting the construction of that system. I want to get your take on defense, and whether or not that’s an area you see continuing to grow, because everyone’s trying to figure out where the economic growth comes from,” she asked.
Cramer, in turn, suggested that immigrants and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell deserve some blame for the poor jobs report.
“Remember, too, we don’t have a lot of people hanging around in this country that aren’t working,” he claimed. “We have people from other countries, and that’s a problem. So I think we need to reconcile our immigration policy as well with our workforce. You start doing it all together, and I think there’s no end to the opportunities for growth in this economy.”
Bartiromo then asked the senator if he believed the latest report would be enough for Powell to cut interest rates.
“Well, if not, I hope some of the other governors put a little extra pressure on Chairman Powell,” he said. “I’ve defended Chairman Powell many times to Donald Trump, and publicly I’m on the Banking Committee, but I, like everybody, have grown increasingly frustrated by what seems to be a chairman that is always pushing against the trend.”
Powell has earned the ire of Trump and MAGAworld for refusing to slash interest rates amid the administration’s sprawling trade war. The Fed chair maintained on Tuesday that he was “simply taking some time” instead of “overreacting” to Trump’s chaotic tariff rollout.
ADP chief economist Nela Richardson attributed the job losses in June to stalled hiring.
“Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers led to job losses last month,” she said. “Still, the slowdown in hiring has yet to disrupt pay growth.”
The Labor Department is expected to release its more comprehensive employment report on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters said they expect the government’s report to show that private payrolls rose by 105,000 in June.
