White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox Business that investors should scale back expectations for monthly job growth because the administration is deporting immigrants who were working in the U.S. illegally. The January employment report nonetheless showed 130,000 jobs added, while annual government revisions sharply reduced previously reported job gains for 2025.
The Trump administration’s economic messaging faced renewed scrutiny after the January employment report showed employers added 130,000 jobs, a gain that exceeded many economists’ forecasts.
The report also included annual benchmark revisions that substantially reduced the government’s earlier estimate of job creation in 2025 to 181,000—a figure that multiple outlets described as the weakest year of job growth outside a recession since 2003.
Against that backdrop, Peter Navarro, a senior White House adviser on trade and manufacturing, argued in a Tuesday interview on Fox Business that markets should recalibrate what they consider a “normal” monthly jobs figure. “We have to revise expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like.… Wall Street has to adjust for the fact that we’re deporting millions of illegals out of the job market,” he said.
January’s gains were concentrated in sectors including health care, which has become a major driver of hiring in recent months. Separate reporting has noted that immigrant workers make up a meaningful share of the nation’s health care workforce.
Other indicators pointed to continued labor-market strain. Data cited in major news coverage showed layoffs in January exceeded 108,000, the highest January level since 2009.
The White House has also circulated a memo to supporters titled “Don’t Be a Panican. We’re Winning — and We’re Not Slowing Down.” The memo declared that the country is “safer, stronger, richer, and more secure than at any point in decades,” and highlighted a claimed six-month decline in rents. It also pointed to consumer-price relief from the private sector, including PepsiCo’s announcement that it would cut suggested retail prices by up to 15% on some core snack brands, though final shelf prices can vary by retailer.
Public opinion polling has shown dissatisfaction with the administration’s economic stewardship. A PBS News/NPR/Marist survey released in December found 57% disapproved of how President Donald Trump was handling the economy, while 36% approved.
On immigration enforcement, internal Department of Homeland Security statistics obtained by CBS News reported that less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE during Trump’s first year back in office had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses. The same figures indicated roughly 2% were accused of being gang members, while a separate category showed less than 2% had homicide or sexual-assault charges or convictions.
In Washington, D.C., local reporting found the city went three weeks to start 2026 without a homicide—its longest such start in more than three decades—before the first killing of the year was recorded on January 21.
The competing interpretations of the labor data and immigration enforcement come as both parties look ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, with the White House seeking to portray momentum even as revised employment figures and other indicators fuel debate over the economy’s direction.
