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Donald Trump on Friday threatened to shoot down Venezuelan military jets if they pose a danger to US forces, as Washington deploys F-35 warplanes to Puerto Rico as part of the president’s war on drug cartels.The 10 aircraft will join US warships already present in the southern Caribbean as Trump steps up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the United States accuses of leading a drug cartel.The standoff has grown in recent days as the Pentagon said two Venezuelan military planes flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters Thursday in a “highly provocative” move.Asked Friday what steps he would take if there were further incidents, Trump said: “If they do put us in a dangerous position, they’ll be shot down.”US forces on Tuesday blew up an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean that Trump said belonged to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization he tied to Maduro, killing 11 people.The high-tech F-35 jets are being deployed to an airfield in Puerto Rico, a US Caribbean island territory of more than three million people, US sources familiar with the matter told AFP Friday on condition of anonymity.Maduro — a leftist firebrand whose last election in 2024 was seen by Washington as illegitimate — has denounced the US build-up as “the greatest threat our continent has seen in the last 100 years.”Declaring his country prepared for “armed struggle in defense of the national territory,” he has mobilized Venezuela’s military, which numbers around 340,000, and reservists, which he claims exceed eight million.- ‘Highly provocative’ -“If Venezuela were attacked, it would immediately enter a period of armed struggle,” Maduro told foreign correspondents.White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller took aim at Maduro on Friday, describing him as an “indicted drug trafficker” and saying Venezuela is being run by a “drug cartel, a narcotrafficking organization.”Tuesday’s deadly attack on what Washington said was a drug-carrying boat was a major escalation, as well as an unusual use of the US military for what has historically been a law enforcement issue.There are currently eight US Navy vessels involved in counter-narcotics efforts in Latin America: three amphibious assault ships, two destroyers, a cruiser and a littoral combat ship in the Caribbean, and one destroyer in the eastern Pacific, a US defense official said this week.The Department of Defense — which Trump rebranded Friday as the “Department of War” — said two “Maduro regime” aircraft flew near a US vessel Thursday.”This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,” it said on X. It did not give further details. Venezuela has 15 F-16 fighter jets purchased from the United States in the 1980s, plus a number of Russian fighters and helicopters.During a trip to Latin America this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the new aggressive approach towards what Washington calls “narcoterrorist” groups. “What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Rubio said Wednesday in Mexico.”If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States.”Caracas accused Washington of committing extrajudicial killings in Tuesday’s attack.

The red beret-wearing Guardian Angels founder running as the Republican mayoral candidate in true-blue New York — who says he has a “love-hate” relationship with Donald Trump — told AFP any effort by the president to sway the election is “not democracy.”Curtis Sliwa — who created the city’s volunteer anti-crime group in 1979 — is the focus of swirling reports that Trump is trying to clear the field for left-wing frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s closest rival, Democratic former state governor Andrew Cuomo.Those reports suggest Trump, a New York native who made his fortune in real estate in the Big Apple, is considering handing government jobs to Sliwa and sitting mayor Eric Adams to remove them from contention.”I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one, and I think that’s a race that could be won,” Trump said this week of New York’s mayoral election on November 4.But the 71-year-old Sliwa, who survived an apparent mob assassination bid in 1992, is adamant he is staying in the race to win and has not spoken to Trump.”That’s not democracy,” he said of Trump’s reported meddling. Trump is a weak spot for Republicans in an overwhelmingly Democratic city that has repeatedly rejected the property developer turned populist politician at the polls.”We’ve had a love-hate relationship. We’ve differed, we’ve agreed,” Sliwa, as ever wearing the Angels’ classic red beret, said outside a public school in Queens on the first day back for students as drivers hooted and waved at him approvingly.”I’m (sometimes) going to have to take a stand that’s in opposition to President Trump, and then try to negotiate something that is going to benefit New York because he controls the purse strings to so many of the projects,” said Sliwa.”So it’s a fine balancing act.”Adams came out swinging Friday, appearing at a hastily organized press conference after a New York Times report said the Trump administration was considering him to be its envoy to Saudi Arabia.”I am in this race, (the) only one that can beat Mamdani,” he said.While The New York Post said the scandal-tainted Adams would meet with White House officials to discuss a role next week, the mayor insisted “those reports are wrong.””I am running,” he said, wearing a polo shirt emblazoned with the word “mayor.”Cuomo, who lost the Democratic race to be the party’s mayoral candidate to Mamdani in a major upset and is running as an independent, said “what Eric Adams chooses to do is up to Eric Adams. What Curtis Sliwa chooses to do is up to Curtis Sliwa.”- ‘Crime crisis’ -One area where Sliwa departs from Trump’s hardline policies is on immigration, favoring efforts to integrate migrants by teaching them English and preparing them for citizenship rather than the president’s all-out drive to deport undocumented residents.”When you start raiding the backs of restaurants or the hospitality industry, and there are people who would be living in neighborhoods like this, who may not have legal status, are you going to pull them out? Are you going to deport them back?” Sliwa asked. “Because you won’t have any restaurants, you won’t have hotels operating.”Sliwa does take a hard line on crime that is more in line with Trump’s own zero tolerance approach — even though official statistics show violent crime in the city is at historic lows.”(Mamdani’s) Achilles’ heel is public safety… we’re now in a crime crisis. We have gang shootings. We have blood flowing in parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx, and a 69-year-old grandmother was cut down by gang gunfire — and he had no answers for that,” said Sliwa.Mamdani, a leftist who has become a leading figure of opposition to Trump and a frequent target of the president, declined multiple interview requests.Despite the former McDonald’s manager’s plain-spoken style and tough-on-crime image, Sliwa has a soft spot for animals.”I can’t tell you how that crosses over an enormous Maginot Line of different political ideologies — especially among women,” he said, having personally rescued numerous cats.

South Koreans suspected of working in the United States illegally were the majority of 475 people arrested in a raid on a Hyundai-LG battery plant being built in the southern state of Georgia, a US official said Friday.Steven Schrank, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent in Atlanta, said the operation was the largest single site raid carried out so far as part of President Donald Trump’s nationwide anti-migrant drive.Thursday’s raid stemmed from a “criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and serious federal crimes” at the Hyundai Motor-LG Energy Solution joint venture plant in the town of Ellabell, Schrank told reporters.”This was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks and put them on buses,” he said. “This has been a multi-month criminal investigation.”Asked by reporters at the White House about the raid, Trump said: “I would say that they were illegal aliens, and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was just doing its job.”South Korea expressed “concern and regret” over the raid, and urged Washington to respect the rights of its citizens.”The economic activities of our investors and the legitimate rights and interests of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the course of US law enforcement,” South Korean foreign ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-woong said.Schrank said the 475 arrested were “illegally present in the United States” and “working unlawfully.””There was a majority of Korean nationals,” he said, adding that it was the “largest single site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations.”In Seoul, a source familiar with the matter told AFP that around 300 South Korean nationals had been detained.Schrank said he could not give a breakdown of how many of those arrested at the plant, which is intended to supply batteries for electric vehicles, were employed by Hyundai, LG or subcontractors.Those taken into custody have been turned over to ICE for potential removal, he said.- Billions in investment -Schrank said some of those detained had illegally crossed the US border, others arrived with visas that prohibited them from working and others overstayed their work visas.”This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans, ensuring a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy and protecting workers from exploitation,” he said.South Korea, Asia’s fourth biggest economy, is a key automaker and electronics producer with multiple plants in the United States.South Korean companies have invested billions of dollars to build factories in America in a bid to access the US market and avoid tariff threats from Trump.President Lee Jae Myung met Trump during a visit last month, and Seoul pledged $350 billion in US investment in July.Trump has pledged to revive the manufacturing sector in the United States, while also vowing to deport millions of undocumented migrants.In a statement, Hyundai said it was “closely monitoring” the situation at the Georgia construction site and “working to understand the specific circumstances.””As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company,” the firm said.LG Energy Solution said it was “gathering all relevant details.””We will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities,” it added.

US President Donald Trump moved Friday to create a blacklist of countries that Washington says unjustly detain Americans, spelling out harsh punishments including bans on travel.In an executive order, Trump said the United States will now designate “state sponsors of wrongful detention,” similar to the powerful tool of branding countries as state sponsors of terrorism.”With this EO you are signing today, you are drawing a line in the sand that US citizens will not be used as bargaining chips,” Trump aide Sebastian Gorka told reporters in the Oval Office.The Trump administration did not immediately name countries for the new blacklist, but a senior official said that China, Iran and Afghanistan would be under review as they “persistently participate in hostage diplomacy.”The countries designated by the State Department would be subject to sanctions and US export controls, and officials involved in the imprisonment would be barred from entry.In one measure rarely taken by the United States, officials said that the State Department could bar US citizens from visiting countries put on the blacklist.Currently the United States only strictly bans its citizens from traveling to North Korea, a step taken after American student Otto Warmbier was detained in 2016 in the totalitarian state and released the following year in a vegetative state, dying shortly afterward.The new blacklist can also target groups that effectively control territory but are not recognized as states.The United States across administrations has put a top priority on freeing Americans overseas, negotiating prisoner swaps to free high-profile detainees including in Russia.Trump has trumpeted his record on freeing Americans, with officials saying 72 prisoners have been released overseas under his watch. A US official said that the new executive order would make it easier to take action without going through a “burdensome” process.The United States can also remove countries if it decides they have come into compliance.The State Department routinely helps Americans detained overseas and then assesses whether they were jailed for wrongful reasons, including as political bargaining chips.Under former president Joe Biden, China released all Americans considered wrongfully detained in part in return for the United States loosening a warning against Americans traveling to the Asian power, advice that had hurt the business climate.

US job growth stalled in August while unemployment crept up to its highest level since 2021, in a closely watched report Friday after weak data earlier prompted President Donald Trump to fire a key economic official.Overall, the figures confirmed a labor market slowdown in the world’s biggest economy as businesses pull back on hiring while grappling with uncertainty sparked in large part by Trump’s fast-changing trade wars.US job growth came in at 22,000 last month, down from July’s 79,000 figure, said the Department of Labor.The jobless rate edged up from 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent, in line with analysts’ expectations but reaching its highest level since 2021.Job growth in June, while earlier estimated at 14,000, was revised to a 13,000 decline, the report said. This was the first such decline since 2020.Hiring in July was adjusted slightly upwards.Analysts closely monitor US employment numbers given their bearing on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions — and a deteriorating labor market could tip the balance in favor of rate cuts.Trump on Friday reiterated his call for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to slash rates, saying he should have done so “long ago.”Friday’s numbers are also under scrutiny after a poor showing in July’s data — released last month — prompted Trump to claim the figures were “rigged” and to fire the commissioner of labor statistics.Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic said that data revisions take place as survey response rates have declined. If companies respond late, numbers have to be updated.White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett told CNBC the latest figures were slightly disappointing but expressed hope they would be revised higher.- ‘Alarm bells’ -“The alarm bells are starting to go off in the labor market,” said Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union. “More and more industries are shedding jobs.”She noted that almost all recently added jobs were in health care. If that sector were excluded, job growth would be negative.Health care added 31,000 jobs but federal government employment declined by 15,000 — and is down by 97,000 since reaching a peak in January.Manufacturing employment — an important issue politically for Trump’s blue collar base — dropped by 12,000 in August and dropped 78,000 over the year. Employment in the wholesale trade sector also fell.”Increasing operating costs and acute policy uncertainty” have pushed firms to keep a tight lid on new hiring, said EY senior economist Lydia Boussour.She added that tariffs and uncertainty are significantly hitting goods-producing sectors.Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent in August, as they did in July.Trump’s stop-start approach to rolling out tariffs has snarled supply chains and made it tough for businesses to plan their next moves. Many firms said they have been forced to put growth plans on hold.”The ‘no hiring’ economy is turning to a layoff economy and if that worsens, it will lead to a recession,” Long warned.A Briefing.com consensus forecast expected US hiring at 78,000 in August.The cooldown in hiring has been notable, with monthly payroll gains averaging 168,000 in 2024.- Rate cuts likely -“The fourth month of sub-par employment performance signals a dramatic stall in hiring and fully supports the Fed starting rate cuts at the next meeting,” said Bostjancic.Fed officials are holding their next policy meeting from September 16-17, and Powell has previously opened the door to lowering rates.”The real question now becomes how many rate cuts follow,” Bostjancic said.Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist Mike Fratantoni said: “This is not a picture of an economy at ‘maximum employment.'”But he noted that the pace of any additional cuts will be “tempered by the ongoing risk of a pickup in tariff-induced inflation.”Already, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told Bloomberg TV Friday that he remains undecided on a September rate reduction, as he monitors inflation risks.The Fed has held interest rates steady this year at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent as policymakers observed the impact of tariffs on consumer prices.

Tesla unveiled on Friday a proposed compensation package for Elon Musk that could top $1 trillion if the controversial CEO delivers on his vision for stratospheric growth from new technologies.The plan potentially provides Musk — already the world’s wealthiest person — with up to 12 percent of additional total company shares, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. To reach the full award, Tesla must reach a market capitalization of “at least $8.5 trillion by 2035,” according to the filing, which announced a shareholder vote on the proposal in November. Tesla’s current market capitalization is just over $1 trillion, down somewhat from its peak following recent weak earnings. Analysts have attributed some of the sales woes to Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians, which has sparked criticism.But Musk has described Tesla’s potential growth as nearly boundless, saying in July that if the company delivers on its vision for autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, “Tesla will be the most valuable company in the world by far.”Tesla shares rallied on the announcement of the plan, which directly links Musk’s potential pay to long-term shareholder performance, a popular approach with investors.Earlier this month, Tesla announced an “interim” compensation award worth about $29 billion for Musk, asserting the need to retain the outspoken CEO at a moment of fierce competition for top talent.The developments come as Tesla challenges a Delaware court ruling that struck down a 2018 package for Musk of about $55.8 billion.Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm and board member Kathleen Wilson-Thompson described the new package as a “super ambitious incentive package for a pioneering, ambitious and unique CEO” in a letter to shareholders.”We believe that Elon’s singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point,” they said in the letter, which also set conditions of having one million robotaxis in commercial operation and one million AI bots.”If Elon achieves all the performance milestones under this principle-based 2025 CEO Performance Award, his leadership will propel Tesla to become the most valuable company in history.”But Tesla also alluded to the possibility that the unprecedentedly massive pay package may worsen a public backlash to Tesla and Musk, whose fortune is estimated at around $435 billion.”Adverse public perception of the 2025 CEO Performance Award, even if it is baseless or satisfactorily addressed, may result in negative publicity for Tesla, which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition,” the filing said.Musk was the most unpopular of 14 public figures polled by Gallup in August. It placed the billionaire just below Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. Musk had a 33 percent favorable and 61 percent unfavorable rating, according to the poll.- Series of milestones -To receive the full pay package, Musk must hit 12 milestones related to market capitalization. The first tranche would be available if and when Tesla reaches $2 trillion in market value, with the next nine boosts at an additional $500 billion each in market value.The plan also involves a series of operating profit and product goals, such as the delivery of 20 million Tesla vehicles. The package aims to ensure Musk stays at Tesla for at least seven-and-a-half years, or 10 years to receive the full award.The proposed compensation package was included in Tesla’s proxy statement for shareholders ahead of an annual meeting on November 6 in Austin.The full award would lift Musk’s overall stake in Tesla to more than 25 percent of total shares.CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson expects Tesla shareholders to approve the package.”For Musk to even hit the first tranche, the stock basically has to double in value,” Nelson said. “Investors like the fact that the pay package aligns with shareholder interests.”Musk is viewed within the business world as a unique talent after his success with building Tesla and SpaceX into major global companies. But his stewardship at Tesla has come under scrutiny in the last year as car sales and profits have tumbled. This trend has been partly due to Musk’s political efforts, but is also related to a sluggish rollout of new auto models after the polarizing Cybertruck sold poorly. After joining the administration of US President Donald Trump in the first months of 2025, Musk has exited Washington following friction with the Republican leader. Musk and Trump drew headlines in the spring due to public sniping, but relations between the men have quieted since then.Shares of Tesla rose 2.5 percent near midday.

US President Donald Trump is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico as part of his war on drug cartels, sources familiar with the matter told AFP on Friday, as tensions mount with Venezuela over Washington’s military build-up in the Caribbean.The planes will join US warships already deployed to the southern Caribbean as Trump steps up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the United States accuses of leading a drug cartel.The standoff has grown in recent days as the Pentagon said two Venezuelan military planes flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters Thursday in a “highly provocative” move.US forces on Tuesday blew up an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean that Trump said belonged to the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization he tied to Maduro, killing 11 people.The high-tech F-35 jets are being deployed to an airfield in Puerto Rico, a US Caribbean island territory of more than three million people, the US sources said on condition of anonymity.Maduro — a leftist firebrand whose last election in 2024 was seen by Washington as illegitimate — has denounced the US build-up as “the greatest threat our continent has seen in the last 100 years.” Declaring his country prepared for “armed struggle in defense of the national territory,” he has mobilized Venezuela’s military, which numbers around 340,000, and reservists, which he claims exceed eight million.”If Venezuela were attacked, it would immediately enter a period of armed struggle,” Maduro told foreign correspondents.- ‘Highly provocative’ -Tuesday’s deadly US attack on what Washington said was a drug-carrying boat was a major escalation, as well as an unusual use of the US military for what has historically been a law enforcement issue.”Venezuela has been very bad, both in terms of drugs and sending some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world into our country,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.There are currently eight US Navy ships involved in counter-narcotics efforts in Latin America: three amphibious assault ships, two destroyers, a cruiser and a littoral combat ship in the Caribbean, and one destroyer in the eastern Pacific, a US defense official said this week on condition of anonymity.The US Department of Defense — which Trump is set to rebrand as the “Department of War” on Friday — said that two “Maduro regime” aircraft flew near a US vessel on Thursday.”This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,” it said on X.It did not give further details. Venezuela has 15 F-16 fighter jets purchased from the United States in the 1980s plus a number of Russian fighters and helicopters.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the new aggressive approach towards what Washington calls “narcoterrorist” groups on a trip to Latin America this week.”What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Rubio said in Mexico on Wednesday.”If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States.”Caracas accused Washington of committing extrajudicial killings in the attack.

President Donald Trump is rebranding the Defense Department as the Department of War — a name used when it had more limited responsibilities for US Army forces rather than the entire military.The Defense Department was established after World War II by an act of Congress, meaning that Trump likely lacks the authority to unilaterally change its official name.To avoid that issue, the White House said the president is authorizing the use of the new label as a “secondary title” by his administration.Here is a look at key facts about the history of the departments overseeing the United States military.- More than 200 years old -The War Department was established in August 1789 to oversee the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps, according to an official Pentagon history web page.A little less than a decade later, responsibility for naval forces was transferred to the new Department of the Navy, which also gained responsibility for the US Marine Corps in 1834.That left the War Department responsible for the Army, and later for the Army Air Corps — the precursor of the Air Force.- Reorganized after WWII -The War Department underwent a major reorganization — and name change — following World War II.The changes began with the signing of the National Security Act by then president Harry Truman in July 1947. The legislation merged the War and Navy Departments as well as the Air Force into the “National Military Establishment” led by a defense secretary.The National Security Act was amended in August 1949 to change the name of the National Military Establishment to the Department of Defense. It also removed the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force from cabinet positions and made them subordinate to the defense secretary.- Headquartered at the Pentagon -The US Defense Department is headquartered at the Pentagon, a massive five-sided building located in Virginia on the Potomac River.Construction of the building was authorized due to space constraints in the run-up to World War II, with personnel of what was then known as the War Department split between more than a dozen buildings at the time and the number of staff expected to grow.Ground was broken on the Pentagon in September 1941 and it officially opened 16 months later in January 1943. The Defense Department is now the largest employer in the United States, with more than three million military and civilian personnel.

A new documentary featuring never-before-seen footage of a pivotal moment in folk music history taps into a revival of interest in Bob Dylan thanks to recent biopic “A Complete Unknown”, which starred Timothee Chalamet.”Newport and the Great Folk Dream”, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, charts the development of the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in the early 1960s.Director Robert Gordon picked through 90 hours of black-and-white archive footage shot and then stored for decades by filmmaker Murray Lerner, who made a 1967 documentary “Festival”.  “It was a constant revelation of gems and treasures,” Gordon told reporters at a press conference Friday.Although the documentary sometimes struggles for narrative drive, music fans are likely to soak up gripping performances from American folk legends Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, or Doc Watson. A young John Lee Hooker sings “Boom Boom”, while other Black blues heroes from the era, Skip James, Taj Mahal, Muddy Waters and the electric Howlin’ Wolf have the crowd of college-age Americans in raptures. Some of the most memorable moments, however, come from the long-forgotten regional acts — gospel singers or performers of woodcutters’ working music, which were a key part of the Newport festival vision. But Dylan’s fraught relationship with the folk music community provides the main plotline, a story that will be familiar to viewers of the Oscar-nominated “A Complete Unknown” which helped bring Dylan to a new, younger audience. “We owe a big thank you to Timothee Chalamet and (director) James Mangold,” Gordon said. “Teens, people in their 20s and 30s, who had never had heard of the Newport Folk Festival are now aware of it and interested in Dylan.””Newport and the Great Folk Dream” ends with Dylan’s now-famous performance in 1965 in which he plays an electric instead of acoustic guitar — upsetting folk music purists — leading to booing from some in the audience at the end of his set.- Race and war -In between the musical performances, Gordon also weaves in the era’s tumultuous political backdrop, including protests against the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the rise and death of President John F. Kennedy.The political content is a reminder to contemporary artists of their power and influence, film editor Laura Jean Hocking said.”One of the things that we wanted to do with this movie was to tell people not to be afraid, to use their voices to speak out against injustice, to speak out against war, against racism, against the erasure of history,” she said.After diving into Dylan’s back catalogue for “A Complete Unknown”, Mangold told AFP in January it had made him realise how “narcissistic” modern pop music was with its focus on “me, me, me”.The Newport film is one of several documentaries by international directors at the Venice Film Festival, which wraps up on Saturday.Only one is in the running for the top Golden Lion prize, Italy’s Gianfranco Rosi’s ode to Naples, “Sotto le Nuvole” (Under the Clouds).Others include “Ghost Elephants”, the latest from German veteran Werner Herzog about a mythical herd of elephants in Angola, and “Cover-Up” about American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh by Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus.

US employment data on Friday is expected to confirm a cooled labor market, as companies pull back on hiring amid continued uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs.But the jobs report is set to attract heightened scrutiny, after a poor showing last month prompted Trump to claim the numbers were “rigged” and take the unprecedented action of firing the commissioner of labor statistics.US job growth missed expectations in July, while revisions to hiring figures in recent months brought them to the weakest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic.Hours after the data release, Trump charged that Commissioner Erika McEntarfer had “faked” jobs data to boost Democrats’ chances of victory in the recent presidential election.He also pointed to the downward revisions to hiring numbers, saying that similar things have happened this year — amid his return to the presidency in January — and “always to the negative.”But Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic told AFP that data revisions take place as survey response rates have declined.If companies respond late, numbers have to be updated to reflect incoming data.”I’ve never viewed the data as being politically determined or influenced,” she said. But she conceded that “there’s room for improvement in data collection.”- ‘Fragile balance’ -For now, EY chief economist Gregory Daco anticipates Friday’s report “to confirm that a marked slowdown in labor market conditions is underway.”This comes as business leaders “continue to restrain hiring” as they grapple with softer demand, higher costs and interest rates, he wrote in a note.Trump’s stop-start approach to rolling out tariffs has snarled supply chains and made it tough for businesses to plan their next moves. Many firms said they have been forced to put growth plans on hold.A Briefing.com consensus forecast expects US hiring to pick up slightly to 78,000 in August from 73,000 in July.The unemployment rate, meanwhile, is anticipated to edge up from 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent.While this appears to be an improvement, KPMG senior economist Kenneth Kim told AFP that “last year, the average payroll gain per month was 168,000.”The average so far this year, he said, was 85,000 — about half the pace seen in 2024.”Recent data highlights a fragile balance in the labor market: labor demand and supply have become subdued, while layoffs remain limited,” Daco said.”Increasingly, job creation is concentrated within a couple of private-sector industries,” he added.He also warned that the labor force participation rate will likely edge down as stricter immigration policies under the Trump administration increasingly constrain worker flows in the coming months.- Rate cut incoming -If Friday’s data came in as expected, “there’s a very high probability” that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates at the end of its policy meeting from September 16-17, said Kim of KPMG.Since its last cut in December, the US central bank has held interest rates steady at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent.In doing so, Fed policymakers have been balancing between risks of inflation and a deteriorating jobs market.Economists have warned that Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on imports could fuel inflation and bog down economic growth over the long run. The Fed is monitoring the duties’ effects on consumer prices as officials mull the right timing for their next rate cut, despite Trump’s growing calls for swift and significant reductions.A jobs report signaling a tepid labor market would likely support the need for a cut to boost the economy, while a surprisingly strong showing might instead tip the odds in the other direction.