Trump’s “Great” Economy Takes Another Hit as Unemployment Claims Hit 26 Million

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

The Department of Labor announced that unemployment claims in the United States have continued to spike, with 4.4 million new filings in the last week, an unprecedented amount. This brings the total number of unemployment claims to 26.4 million, more than the 2008 financial crisis.

The news comes as President Donald Trump announced he would temporarily suspend U.S. immigration in a bid to protect jobs and public health.

“To protect American workers I will be issuing a temporary suspension of immigrating into the United States,” Trump said at a White House briefing earlier this week, shortly after tweeting the news.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the order would protect both the “health and economic well-being of American citizens as we face unprecedented times,” adding: “At a time when Americans are looking to get back to work, action is necessary.”

Democrats, including Representative Joaquin Castro (Texas) have criticized the measure.

“He’s using it as both a distraction and an opportunity to further his hard-line immigration policies,” Castro told reporters during a phone interview. “Immigrants have been his No. 1 political punching bag, and that’s where he feels he scores points with his base. And he completely botched the coronavirus response — the delays of the administration were deadly for Americans and it put more people unnecessarily at risk.”

The previous record of unemployment claims was 16.6 million.

The unemployment rate in the United States was at a 50-year low as recently as January, when the economy added 225,000 jobs, but those numbers have been upended in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly 48,000 Americans have died during the coronavirus pandemic since February.