WASHINGTON _ Buoyed by a better than expected jobs report, President Donald Trump claimed victory Friday over the nation's three most serious crises _ the coronavirus outbreak, protests over police brutality and endemic racism, and an economy on life support _ even though none are close to solved.
With his reelection campaign down in the polls and desperate for good news, Trump boasted of "the greatest comeback in American history" in an unscripted stream-of-consciousness monologue that lasted nearly an hour in a steamy White House Rose Garden.
They got it in a Labor Department report that showed the nation gained 2.2. million jobs in May as states began to ease stay-at-home orders imposed since March.
Unemployment was pegged at a dismal 13.3 %, however, with tens of millions of Americans still out of work and tens of thousands of restaurants, shops, businesses and factories still closed.
The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 108,000 on Friday, the most by far of any country. But Trump touted the still-rising tally as evidence of a successful government response to the worst public health threat in a century.
Polls show widespread disapproval of Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis, from his weeks of dismissing the threat, to his battles with governors and the World Health Organization. He acknowledged none of that, however.
"We made every decision correctly," he said.
And while he praised law enforcement agencies for quelling protests that have convulsed scores of cities since the videotaped death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last week unleashed a wave of anguish and calls for change, Trump offered no plan to address problematic policing or racial injustice.
He called the May jobs report "a tremendous tribute to equality," although it showed that African-American unemployment actually worsened last month. And he suggested that Floyd, who was buried Thursday after a funeral that drew hundreds of mourners, would be pleased at the news.
"Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, 'This is a great thing that's happening for this country,'" Trump said. "This is a great day for him. It's a great day for everybody."
Trump took no questions in the hastily-arranged event, which the White House had billed as a press conference.
It was his first appearance before reporters since his controversial walk to St. John's Church across from the White House on Monday night, moments after federal security forces gassed and pushed a group of peaceful protests from Lafayette Square to clear a path.
The area is now blocked off with fences and National Guard troops in a widening security cordon around the White House, leaving the president increasingly isolated and parts of the nation's capital appearing under military occupation.
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., asked Trump in a letter Friday to "withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from our city."
Trump's determination to hype an economic turnaround despite a highly uncertain forecast reflects not just his characteristic salesmanship but deepening anxiety about his political prospects five months from the election.
Public and private polling shows the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, building a significant national lead and pulling ahead in several swing states, including those Trump won in 2016.
Biden, who planned to address the jobs numbers Friday afternoon, even gained ground on a key question _ whom do you trust to handle the economy. Trump maintained an advantage on that issue even as he slipped overall.
A Monmouth University poll released this week found Biden polled better than Trump on voters' confidence in their ability to handle the "post-pandemic recovery." The poll found 54% of voters said they had a great deal or some confidence in Biden; 47% said that about Trump.
Looking to halt that trend, Trump repeatedly compared the U.S. economy to a "strong patient," claiming it was so healthy prior to the COVID-19 outbreak that it could now recover more quickly than most economists predicted.
Gen. James Mattis, Trump's former defense secretary, and a number of other military and elected officials have spoken out in sharp terms, blaming the president for encouraging a law enforcement and military crackdown on peaceful protesters and portraying him as a threat to American democracy.
A handful of Republican lawmakers echoed Mattis' frustrations, most notably Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who said she was "struggling" with whether to back Trump over Biden in November and suggested that GOP lawmakers might take this moment to express their reservations about the president's divisive style.
Trump's former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, a retired Marine general, added his voice Friday to the stream of high-profile politicians and military brass who condemned Trump's use of the military to clear out protesters.
"We need to look harder at who we elect," he told Anthony Scaramucci, another former Trump official-turned critic, in an interview. "I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through the filter: What is their character like? What are their ethics?"
Trump, who trashed Mattis in a tweet after his comments were published Wednesday evening and threatened Thursday to back a primary challenge to Murkowski in 2022, made reference Friday only to his validators, thanking the cable news hosts who expressed their enthusiasm publicly over Friday's jobs report.
(Times staff writer Noah Bierman contributed to this report.)
