President Donald Trump talks up the US employment figures in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday.Credit:Bloomberg
Then camethe shocking death of George Floyd in Minneapolis,and the subsequent eruption of nationwide protests. Four separate polls this week showed most Americans disapprove of Trump's response to the protests and underlying racial issues in the US – just as they do his handling of the pandemic.
Only 31 per cent of voters now say the US is headed in the right direction,the lowest recorded in Morning Consult's polling since Trump took office in early 2017.
Democratic rival Joe Biden has opened up a net lead of 7.2 percentage points over Trump in theRealClearPoliticsaverage,up from 5.3 at the start of May. This week,for the first time,major betting markets rated Biden the favourite in November.
It was in this context that Trump discoveredthe latest US unemployment figures on Friday morning (Saturday AEST). The numbers for May defied all expectations:instead of climbing to 20 per cent,the official US unemployment rate fell to 13.3 per cent from 14.7 in April. The US economy added 2.5 million jobs against expectations that it would lose 8 million jobs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average quickly jumped by 1000 points in response to the news.
For economists,the numbers were a shock. For Trump,they were a political aphrodisiac. He knows that to have a shot of victory in November,the economy will have to be growing strongly – allowing him to position himself as the leader of a remarkable national comeback.