Critics of President Donald Trump, including liberal economists Paul Krugman and Robert Reich, are warning that between steep new tariffs, mass deportations and mass layoffs of federal government employees, the United States may be in for a painful economic downturn. Krugman argues that the layoffs, which the Trump Administration is carrying out with the help of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are problematic not only because so many skilled workers are being laid off, but also, because putting so many people out of work at once isn’t healthy for the economy.
Meanwhile, on the right, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough (a former GOP congressman) is arguing that while the U.S. needs to think about the size of its federal deficit and cutting fat and pork from the federal government, the Trump/DOGE cuts are being carried out in a reckless, haphazard way.
According to CNBC’s Jeff Fox, the layoffs are fueling the biggest surges in unemployment since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.
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In an article published on April 3, Fox reports, “A surge in federal government job cuts contributed to a near record-setting pace for announced layoffs in March, exceeded only by when the country shut down in 2020 for the COVID pandemic, according to a report Thursday from job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Furloughs in the federal government totaled 216,215 for the month, part of a total 275,240 reductions overall in the labor force. Some 280,253 layoffs across 27 agencies in the past two months have been linked to the Elon Musk-led so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its efforts to pare down the federal workforce.”
That “monthly total,” according to Fox, “was surpassed only by April and May of 2020 in the early days of the pandemic when employers announced combined reductions of more than 1 million, according to Challenger records going back to 1989.”
Krugman fears that mass deportations, mass layoffs and steep new tariffs could be triple whammy for the U.S. economy — and that job losses from tariffs could compound job losses from the Trump/DOGE layoffs. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a major cheerleader for Trump’s tariffs, continues to aggressively defend Trump’s economic policies.
Lutnick told CBS News, “You’re going to see employment leaping starting today.” And CBS’ Jennifer Jacobs, in an April 3 tweet, noted, “Asked if he’s concerned about tariffs impacting unemployment rates in the short term, Lutnick said he didn’t think so, citing the estimated 150,000 jobs that were added in March to ‘get ahead of the tariffs.'”
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Read the full CNBC article at this link.
