President Donald Trump suggested Friday that George Floyd is "looking down" from heaven and marveling at this month's marginally positive jobs report, calling it "a great day" for the dead black man.
The report from the Labor Department showed that the national unemployment rate dropped from 14.7% to 13.3% in May _ and Trump claimed that "hopefully" brings comfort to Floyd, who died last month after a white Minneapolis cop dug a knee into his neck for nearly 10 minutes.
"Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing happening for our country. A great day for him, a great day for everybody," Trump said as part of a 40-minute rant in the White House Rose Garden. "This is a great day for everybody. This is a great day in terms of equality."
Trump's shocking comment about Floyd came even as the U.S. coronavirus death toll hovered near 110,000 and the nation remained in turmoil amid mass protests against police brutality.
The Friday jobs report surprised some economists who had expected that the unemployment rate would continue to plummet and reach the highest levels since the Great Depression.
Instead, as some states have rushed to lift social distancing restrictions and reopen their economies, 2.5 million new jobs were added and the unemployment rate dipped by 1.5%, the report showed.
Still, while overall unemployment dipped, the report showed that the rates of African-Americans and Hispanics out of work continued to increase.
Asked by an African-American reporter about that disparity, Trump answered dismissively.
"You are something," the president said and waved his hand disdainfully at the reporter.
