Trump calls job losses 'great news' as unemployment rate nears 15%

Donald Trump on Tuesday reveled in the news that nearly 70 employees at the Atlantic magazine lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Great News: The boring but very nasty magazine, The Atlantic, is rapidly failing, going down the tubes, and has just been forced to announce it is laying off at least 20% of its staff in order to limp into the future. This is a tough time to be in the Fake News Business!” Trump tweeted late Tuesday night.

His comments come as nearly 39 million Americans — or 14.7% of the workforce — are now out of work thanks to unprecedented stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

As the virus continues to spread and the death toll nears the grim 100,000 mark, experts warn that millions more could lose their jobs.

In fact, Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said the unemployment rate could climb higher than it did during the Great Depression, when 24.9% of Americans were out of work.

Yet rather than express concern for all workers who now must find new work to support themselves and their families, Trump took time to celebrate the job losses at the Atlantic.

It’s part of his yearslong attempt to vilify the media and turn it into an “enemy” in his culture wars.

In response to Trump’s tweet, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic’s editor in chief, urged the public to subscribe to the magazine.

“.@TheAtlantic‘s audience has never been bigger. Please join our hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and tens of millions of readers. Subscribe here: https://accounts.theatlantic.com/products/,” he tweeted.

Others pointed out the bad optics of Trump celebrating job losses in the poor economic climate.

“Law-abiding, tax-paying Americans lose their jobs in the midst of a devastating pandemic; U.S. President calls it ‘great news,'” CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.