Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz falsely claimed in a high-profile Monday television appearance that more manufacturing jobs were lost under President Donald Trump than any other president.
“We know Donald Trump lost more manufacturing jobs than any president in American history. That’s simply factual,” the Minnesota governor said in an interview on the ABC talk show “The View.”
It’s not factual.
Facts First: Walz’s claim is false. Official statistics show that significantly more manufacturing jobs were lost during the presidencies of George W. Bush (4.54 million), George H.W. Bush (1.27 million), Dwight D. Eisenhower (1.2 million), Gerald Ford (767,000) and Ronald Reagan (582,000) than during the Trump presidency (178,000). There were also slightly more manufacturing jobs lost under President Barack Obama (195,000) than under Trump, though that was overwhelmingly because Obama inherited a steep recession.
It’s fair to note that, unlike Trump, most of these presidents had two terms in the White House. But Trump does not even have the record for manufacturing jobs lost among presidents who served one term (like George H.W. Bush) or a partial term (Ford served about 2½ years after he took over for President Richard Nixon).
Pre-pandemic, the economy added manufacturing jobs under Trump
As always, it’s important to note that job numbers are affected by numerous global and domestic factors other than who the president is. And the fact that the economy lost manufacturing jobs during Trump’s years in office was overwhelmingly because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the fourth year.
From the beginning of his presidency in January 2017 through February 2020, just before the pandemic crash, the economy added 414,000 manufacturing jobs.
Manufacturing employment, like overall employment, plummeted as much of the US economy shut down in March and April 2020 – shedding 1.3 million jobs in April 2020 alone.
The economy then immediately resumed adding manufacturing jobs, adding them each month from May to December 2020 before a small loss in January 2021. But those gains were not enough to make up for the losses of March and April 2020.
