A former Trump economic adviser said Friday there is “no question” the U.S. has the strongest economy in the world after a strong February jobs report followed President Biden’s State of the Union address.
“One thing that Biden said last night that was true: It is true that the United States today has the strongest economy. There’s no question about it,” said Stephen Moore, a former Trump campaign economic adviser, on Fox Business Network.
Moore, a former opinion contributor to The Hill, was also floated by Trump to serve on the Federal Reserve Board, but he pulled out of consideration before he was formally nominated. Several GOP senators expressed reservations about supporting Moore amid growing backlash to his controversial remarks about women.
Moore’s comments come after a year of remarkable resilience for the U.S. economy.
Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed in March 2023, sparking fears of a wider banking crisis. Many economists were predicting a recession as the Federal Reserve continued to hike interest rates to their highest levels in more than two decades in an effort to curb high inflation, which peaked at 9 percent in 2022.
Since then, however, inflation has come down to around 3 percent, the jobless rate remains at historic lows and economic growth is strong as the country and the world regain their economic footing following the disruptions of the pandemic.
The February jobs report released Friday morning surpassed expectations, showing the U.S. added 275,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.9 percent, extending the longest stretch the jobless rate has been below 4 percent since November 1969.
While a March rate cut is all but off the table for the Fed, the central bank has signaled it plans to cut rates later this year as it brings the U.S. economy in for a rare “soft landing,” when economic growth cools enough to bring down inflation without triggering a recession.
But Moore’s comment came with a caveat: “We are the least rotten apple in the cart.”
“If you look at what’s happening in Europe today, Germany, Britain, France, if you look at Japan and China, they’re not growing,” Moore said, tempering his comment that the U.S. had the strongest economy.