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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this morning, we got some more troublesome news about the economy under Donald Trump. Today, we learned the economy added only 73,000 jobs last month, far below expectations.

But that wasn't the worst of it. We also learned the economy actually added less than 20,000 jobs, each in May and June, the 2 months following Donald Trump's Liberation Day. That is more than 250,000 fewer jobs than originally thought. Let me say that again. We learned this morning that the economy actually added over a quarter million fewer jobs than originally thought. We also learned that unemployment has gone up.

It is disturbing to say, but the chickens are coming home to roost on Donald Trump's destructive trade war and the American people are paying the price.

You sow chaos, Donald Trump, you reap chaos.

And that is what the President is finding out this morning. A quarter million fewer jobs is a significant revision and a flashing red light. Donald Trump's chaotic tariffs are already bleeding our economy of good-paying jobs. In fact, aside from the pandemic, this job revision is the largest since 1979. In other words, the revision saying we lost jobs is more than any since 1979 except for the period of COVID. That is what tariff whiplash looks like.

Businesses--small, large, medium--always need stability. But businesses are waving around their arms in the dark without a clue of what Donald Trump is going to do next. And we now have clear evidence that it is stunting hiring and growth. If Donald Trump's tariffs have created this much trouble just 4 months after Liberation Day, imagine the trouble Americans will have 8 months after Liberation Day, a year after Liberation Day, when the effects of tariffs go further and more deeply into the economy.

Remember, this jobs report comes a day after we learned inflation accelerated over the last month, and it comes 2 days after we learned growth slowed down in the first half of this year and that business investment is down--down--3 percent.

But what is Donald Trump doing about all this? As bad as his previous trade policies have been, today he is doubling down on his awful trade policies. Last night, he imposed a slew of tariffs on 68 countries around the world, including some of our most important trading partners.

Again, if the effects of Liberation Day have been this bad just in 4 months, imagine the pain and harm Americans will feel 8 months, 12 months from now with these new tariffs just imposed yesterday.

Well, if this is what Liberation Day was supposed to look like, then God help us. Hiring is down; prices are ticking up; families are paying more than $2,400 a year because of these tariffs--$2,400 is a lot of money, even to families way into the middle class.

Businesses have no clue of what Donald Trump is doing next. Worse, we still don't have any idea what Donald Trump is actually agreeing to with partners like Japan, the European Union, and South Korea.

Typical of this administration, this President mistells the truth. He lies more than any other President we have seen. He just makes it up as he goes along and then changes, retracts--we know all about those cartoons, that he never did cartoons. That happens over and over again. And somehow too many of the American people forgive him for baldly lying.

Look at these trade breakthroughs. Look at the pattern. Donald Trump hails the agreement as a major breakthrough, announces huge amounts of money coming into the United States. Then the next day, the people he has made the deals with, the countries he made the deals with retract. They say that didn't happen. He just makes it up.

But Donald Trump, you pay the price for making it up because businesses don't know what you are doing and so they cut back. Business investment was down 3 percent in the last quarter. Before Donald Trump was President--let's not forget, he is trying to sell a 15-percent tariff as a great thing. Before Donald Trump was President, these countries had tariffs in the 1 percent to 2 percent range. Now it is 15 percent.

Do you know what that is? That is a price hike on American families. Asking Americans to bear the brunt of 15-percent tariffs is no sane person's definition of victory.

Instead of cutting off five of your fingers, we are only cutting off three. Don't you want to congratulate us? That is the kind of thing Donald Trump says.

We have no clue what America is actually getting in return. In fact, we don't even know what these deals are because Trump lies about them. There is a pattern here. As I said, there is a pattern. One day, Donald Trump comes out bragging that his so-called deals are somehow major victories. But the next day, reality sets in, and it is abundantly clear when you look at the details, he lied, exaggerated, hyped what was in the deals. One day, he said Japan is going to invest $500 billion in the United States. You know what Japan says the next day? It is, at most, 2 percent of that $500 billion--2 percent.

How does this guy get away with it?

But he doesn't get away with it because the chaos he creates, the mistrust he creates hurts businesses and hurts the country.

So we want to know--the administration refuses to be transparent, refuses to provide the details, and that is very bad for the American people and for the economy. So, today, my colleagues and I are urging transparency from the administration. We are writing Secretary Bessent, Secretary Lutnick, and Ambassador Greer to immediately come clean with answers to a number of important questions about Donald Trump's trade deal.

First of all, how are any of these deals going to be actually verified and enforced? How do we know these investments Donald Trump has bragged about are going to take place because it seems the countries who are making the deals have a different story than what Trump tells? Second, what system or mechanism exists to track any of this information? What industries will see the benefit? What kind of investments are we talking about? Have they thought these things through or does this pop up in Donald Trump's head, and it then comes out of his mouth?

Finally--especially crucially--how do we know that these investments, even if they happen, are going to benefit the public and not just benefit the businesses and industries owned by Donald Trump and his friends?

We have seen over and over again that what they do in the White House doesn't benefit the American people but benefits the people who work in the White House, their cronies, and Donald Trump, himself, who is gaining millions and millions of dollars from his Presidency by taking advantage of the laws they passed. No other President would do it. Ronald Reagan would turn over in his grave if he saw what Trump was doing to benefit himself as President. It causes Americans to just lose faith in democracy.

It has been 4 months since Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day. By now, we have enough evidence to show these chaotic tariffs are inflicting real damage to the economy. We would be foolish to think doubling down is somehow going to make it better, but that is what Trump did yesterday.

Donald Trump needs to reverse course because the only deal he has actually struck is a raw deal for American families. The only deal Donald Trump has struck is a raw deal for American families, consumers, and businesses. Today's jobs report is the latest warning sign that this tariff chaos must end.

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