The Wall Street Journal editorial board didn’t hold back in its latest critique of President Trump. The paper took issue with his decision to replace the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics with what it described as a staunch ideological loyalist. But the Journal made clear that poor job numbers aren’t the only red flags showing up under Trump’s second term.
The board pointed to a broader sense of economic stagnation. Many voters had hoped Trump’s return to the White House would bring wage growth and relief through tax cuts and deregulation. But according to the Journal, those expectations haven’t been met.
Instead, the paper argued that Trump’s policies like border taxes and mass deportations are actually making things worse. Inflation is still lingering, and tariffs are driving up the cost of certain goods, putting added pressure on consumers and businesses alike.
“Mr. Trump ignores these dummy lights about the economy at his own political peril,” the editorial reads. “The President could do far more to help businesses, workers and consumers by dropping his anti-growth policies. He may have inherited a weak economy, but he’s in charge now.”
The scathing editorial also comes after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released images from a book celebrating the 50th birthday of the sex offender financier, Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump is currently suing the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion, claiming its exposé on a 2003 birthday letter he allegedly sent to Epstein—which features a crude sketch of a nude woman along with a bizarre imagined exchange about “enigmas” and “wonderful secrets”—was a total fabrication.
A copy of the sketch was included in the House committee’s disclosure, featuring a signature bearing an uncanny resemblance to the one used by Trump around that period. The White House is continuing to insist that the matter is a “Democratic hoax” designed to smear Trump.
