Trump Touted for His 'Proven Record of Success' Following the May Jobs Report

President Trump is touting the latest jobs numbers report after the U.S. added more jobs than forecasted, a big win for the administration. Meantime, the president says he expects to be out of Iran soon, out of that conflict. But those comments came just hours before the U.S. shot down several Iranian drones that were targeting the Strait of Hormuz. Our Alex Hogan is live in New Jersey, Bedminster, where the president is right now tracking his movements this weekend. Hi, Alex. Hi, Aisha. We are in New Jersey for the first time this summer as President Trump spends his weekend at his golf club in Bedminster. He has no public events that are scheduled for today. But yesterday he held a roundtable in Wisconsin with farmers, and there he touted optimism at ending the war with Iran. It comes as during an interview he reiterated a message that we have heard before, signaling how he could be looking at a timeline. I'm moving very fast. I'm into three months. You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years. I'm into my third month. And all I do is say, well, when are you going to win? If I were a Democrat, nobody would be talking that way. Trump also said the Iranians still have 21 to 22 percent of their missiles. It comes as yesterday the U.S. military says it shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf allies. And as pressure mounts on the administration to end the war, the president is also facing new pushback from within his own party. Four House Republicans this week voted to limit President Trump's war powers. Since the start of the war, the average price of retail gasoline has climbed more than 40 percent, although new jobs numbers released yesterday indicate an upswing in the labor market. Employers added 172,000 jobs in May, and the unemployment rate remained at a steady 4.3 percent. The report also showing a strong payroll gains, and that is for the third month in a row. OK, Alex Hogan reporting live in Bedminster. Alex, thank you very much. The whole world is crazy. So when you have great job numbers, the stock market goes down because they think interest rates will go up. And when interest rates go up, they stop inflation. Well, you know what else stops inflation? Growth actually stops inflation. OK, President Trump touting the latest jobs numbers during his trip to Wisconsin last night, the U.S. economy indeed added 172,000 jobs last month. That was better than expected. For more, let's bring in White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly. Anna, great to have you. Thanks for having me. So credit due where credit is deserved. The president said he was going to bring back manufacturing jobs. And if you put up on the screen where the jobs are in this job report, we can see there were 7000 more manufacturing jobs that were added, which is a big uptick when you think about where those manufacturing jobs have been for the last couple of months here. The president also mentioned inflation and interest rates in Wisconsin last night. The inflation report, of course, for May comes out next week. Last month, inflation rose by point six percent. Anna, there are concerns that if inflation continues to rise, it's going to be hard to cut those rates. So does the president expect his new Fed chair, Kevin Walsh, to cut interest rates? Well, the president's been very clear. He wants Kevin Walsh to be independent. He expects that. But certainly all of the economic indicators indicate that those rates should be cut. But look, this is a proven economic agenda of pro growth policies, just as the president said. He proved it in his first term. He proved it in his second term. And to your point, he has worked incredibly hard on reassuring manufacturing in this country, bringing back jobs that were long sold out, hollowed out industries and sent overseas. So this president has been working very hard over the course of the past year to bring those jobs back here and back here home to the United States. And that proven record of success, combined with tax cuts, which, unfortunately, all Democrats voted against earlier this term, deregulation, all these things combined to a resilient, robust economy. The president's been very clear eyed about the short term disruptions caused by Iran's efforts to subvert the free flow of energy. But look, again, he's built a strong, robust economy that's going to bounce back even better than before. And this outstanding jobs report proves just that. Well, speaking of Iran, you know, he was talking with farmers last night in Wisconsin, and they are concerned about the price of fertilizer, which has gone up because of this rate of Hormuz not being fully reopened. It's gone up by more than 25 percent, I believe. And he teased perhaps more aid, more relief for farmers. Anna, what would that look like? Would that be another big aid package for farmers? Well, the president's been working incredibly hard over the past year to support our great farmers. Unfortunately, those farmers were, again, just like our manufacturers, ripped off their products, not being able to be sold all around the world because we had a massive trade deficit under Joe Biden. This president has quickly reversed course on those failed policies, improving our trade deals to make sure that our farmers are able to sell their Made America products all around the world, lowering input costs. Yes, you touched on fertilizer, but also products like seed machinery. Those input costs have gone down. Deregulation. The farmers were unfortunately plagued by these burdensome regulations like this WOTUS rule that was infringing on the ability to be stewards of their own land. So the president has long been working on behalf of our great farmers and certainly the best is yet to come as he continues to deliver results for these farmers, ranchers, agriculture workers all across the country. OK, I know the president is very aware that the question in this town across the country is when is this Iran conflict going to be over? When are we going to bring our troops back home? And also, what is the Strait of Hormuz going to reopen? And this is the president sitting down with NBC explaining why it's taking so long for Iran to capitulate. Let's listen here. They're proud. There are things they never thought they'd be doing that they're going to have to do. They've got no choice. And it takes a little while. You know, you're talking about 47 years of getting away with whatever they wanted. I mean, we should this should have been done long ago. But The Wall Street Journal is reporting that one of the reasons that Iran is stuck right now in these talks is because it wants cash at an earlier pace. I'm going to read this to you, Anna. They write one major reason why they are stuck. Tehran wants early access to cold, hard cash. And it is politically hazardous for President Trump to agree. For Trump, a decision to free Iran's assets up front would then we can keep moving here with an inevitably generate comparisons to his own attacks on the Obama administration for flying cash into Tehran in the hours after the nuclear accord was implemented in January of 2016. Is that on the table at all in these conversations that the administration would release cash, perhaps within hours of a deal? President Trump's been incredibly clear he is not going to repeat the mistakes of the Obama administration with their totally botched JCPOA, which, yes, sent pallets of cash to Iran and paved the way for them to have a nuclear weapon. The president obviously quickly reversed course on that disastrous agreement in his first term. And now he's focused on making a good deal for the American people. The president isn't going to rush into a bad deal. And he's been very clear that his red lines are Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon. They can't keep this enriched uranium that would be quickly improved to produce a nuclear weapon. So Americans can rest assured any deal is going to be a good deal for the United States. And it's going to protect our national security here in the short term and the long term. So you're confirming here on the record that the president would never agree to opening or unfreezing assets before a deal was done. I'm not going to get ahead of the president on the specifics of any deal. But he's again been very clear he's not going to repeat the failed mistakes of the Obama administration, where they sent pallets of cash to Iran. Any deal is going to be a good deal for the United States. And that's why he's taking his time to ensure that his red lines are met and that any deal is very good for the United States and our national security. OK, we'll continue to follow it and we'll see what the president does. Maybe there's a decision coming this weekend. We'll see. Anna Kelly, great to have you on the program. Have a great weekend.