Exclusive — Secretary Lutnick on Jobs Numbers: Trump Powering ‘Greatest Growth United States Has Ever Seen’

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at a Breitbart News policy event reacted to the stellar jobs numbers released on Wednesday, saying that President Donald Trump is powering the “greatest growth the United States has ever seen.”

Lutnick sat for an interview at the Breitbart News policy event in Washington, DC, as the Labor Department revealed the U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in January, more than twice as many as expected, with the unemployment rate falling to 4.3 percent.

Breitbart News Economics Editor John Carney reported:

Economists had expected 55,000 jobs, although the range of forecasts was particularly wide, with some analysts predicting between zero jobs and 130,000. The unemployment rate was forecast to remain steady at 4.4 percent. The report was delayed a few days by the partial government shutdown.

The jobs growth came entirely from the private sector, which added 172,000 jobs. The federal government’s payrolls contracted by 34,000 while state and local government employment shrank by 8,000.

Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow joked that Breitbart’s favorite part of the economic data is that federal payrolls have dropped drastically.

“The president is driving growth in America. If you think about how you drive growth, you cut down your imports by tariffing them, you drive your exports by opening all of these foreign markets and driving their tariffs down. And, those two things, obviously drive growth,” Lutnick explained at the Breitbart News policy event.

“I think you’re going to get the greatest growth the United States has ever seen,” Lutnick remarked.

He said that he believes the first quarter of 2026 will experience six percent growth “for the greatest economy in the world.”

Lutnick compared America’s rocketing economy to the dismal economic growth of the United Kingdom and the European Union, which both experienced less than one percent growth. He added that Japan’s economy is shrinking.

“We are going to be who we are,” Lutnick continued. “If we’re the greatest economy in the world and the greatest country in the world, let’s grow like we’re the greatest economy in the world and the greatest country in the world. Let’s take care of Americans.”