The Democratic Difference

And exactly HOW did Donald Trump know about Epstein’s illegal activities?

"New victories pour in daily as President Trump delivers on his promises"

Did the White House miss last week's jobs report from ADP?
adpemploymentreport.com

Apparently electing a rapist who takes joy in kidnapping and murdering brown people isn’t as much fun as they thought it would be.

sounds like Trump didn't watch the halftime show that Erica Kirk and Turning Point USA spent so much effort putting together.

And based on Trump's claim that his economy is "setting new standards and records every day," it sounds like nobody on his staff told him about last week's ADP jobs report.

Bar Chart: Jobs Created - Private Sector Last 12 Months Before Trump versus First 12 Months Under Trump Before Trump: 671K Under Trump: 280K Source: ADP https://adpemploymentreport.com/

My favorite part is Trump's tone-deaf bragging about his economy allegedly "setting new standards and records every day" by citing the AI bubble gains on Wall Street, while ignoring the real-life hardships his policies have brought to Main Street.

📣 For those wondering whether my constant Dem fundraising link posts here are effective:

Out of $610K so far this cycle...

$125,000 came via Bluesky links (20.4%)
$39,000 via Twitter/X links (4.6%)
$7,000 via Mastodon links (1.2%)
$3,000 via Spoutible (0.5%)
$2,000 via Threads (0.3%)

Even now, Ghislaine Maxwell continues to protect herself and powerful men accused of heinous crimes. Despite her games, we will hold them all accountable.

Yep. ICE's paramilitary warfare against Americans is stirring opposition even among MAGA-adjacent constituencies, and the data shows this is not just a superficial reaction to ICE violence or tactics, it's a rejection of the broader ideological project of mass deportations:

Confirmed: Todd Blanche Locked Ghislaine Maxwell into a False Story, Then Rewarded Her - emptywheel The only reason why Ghislaine Maxwell would refuse to tell even the false claims she made with Todd Blanche adds to the evidence that Blanche was doing no more than locking her into a false story.

Confirmed: Todd Blanche Locked Ghislaine Maxwell into a False Story, Then Rewarded Her

emptywheel.net/confirmed-to...

Chart titled "Less Than Half of U.S. Adults Are Confident in Federal Health Agencies To Make Recommendations for Childhood Vaccines." It shows confidence levels in the CDC and FDA's recommendations on childhood vaccine schedules. Categories: "A lot" (15%), "Some" (29%), "A little" (27%), and "None" (29%). Breakdowns include "Democrats" (19% a lot), "Independents" (12% a lot), "Republicans" (15% a lot), "MAHA supporters" (13% a lot), and "Not MAHA supporters" (16% a lot). Source: KFF Tracking Poll.

One year into President Trump’s second term, KFF’s latest poll finds that less than half of adults (44%) express confidence in U.S. federal health agencies to make recommendations about the childhood vaccine schedule. https://on.kff.org/4awjeI1

Trump, yesterday, on his economy:

"I'm very proud of it"

ADP private-sector jobs data released last week showing sharp slowdown in job growth under Trump:

adpemploymentreport.com

Rep. Stansbury: We will look at who the DOJ is shielding. The committee is keeping an ongoing list of individuals we would like to subpoena. We would like to speak to Secretary Lutnick, and I personally believe that Mr. Lutnick needs to step down immediately.

January jobs report -

Easy forecast for Wednesday morning:

We're going to spend too much time talking about ancient history (revisions to nonfarm payroll employment) and not enough about the present (meh, neither great nor terrible).

Link: macromostly.substack.com/p/bls-jobs-r...

Excellent post, as usual. Particularly interested to see what happens with prime-working-age employment in 2026.

As for annual revision, I'm surprised by how little I've seen about the ADP numbers changed based on estimate of revision. Trend same, but numbers changed greatly between last 2 reports:

An incredible turn of events here. 10/10, no notes. 😂

The reason Democrats lost in 2024 is clear: between 64% and 68% of voters had a negative view of the economy, and most of those voters blamed President Biden. For an incumbent Vice President to win in those circumstances would have been a near miracle, and holding challenger to 49.8% was an over-performance. Why did so many voters blame Biden for a bad economy even though both unemployment and inflation were lower in the early fall of 2024 than they were when Reagan ran his upbeat “Morning in America” ad in the early fall of 1984? Answer: The failure of Joe Biden and the Democrats from 2021 through mid-2024 to relentlessly and effectively (1) blame Trump for the economic disaster he left behind, and (2) set up comeback narrative for 2024. Yes, skewed media reporting on economy in 2022-23 played an important role, but Reagan overcame justifiably negative reporting on his economic stewardship in 1982-83. Reminder: Reagan’s economic approval in mid-1983 was only 37%, same as Biden’s in mid-2023, and GOP suffered big losses in 1982 midterms. But Reagan was a relentless first-term communicator, holding 26 press conferences, delivering 15 oval office addresses, and doing weekly radio addresses. And he never stopped (1) blaming 1981-83 hardships on Carter, and (2) setting up comeback story for 1984. Biden’s policy wins were big and underrated. He got more through the 50-50 Senate than any other Democrat likely could. But Biden was neither a relentless nor an effective communicator by 2023, and the economic argument was effectively lost by June 2024.

Agree with second sentence. Look forward to reading about third.

In the meantime, my grand unified theory:

Reminder that Republicans have not flipped a single seat in a special election since Trump won. Thank you to everyone who is running and doing this work. We all need you and the hope you provide.

Adding: MAGA *does not* want a politics in which the good life is contested. They want to dictate and impose their version on all by nullifying elections/using fascist violence to force us to accept it. Ironically commentary trying to be "understanding" of Trumpism often won't forthrightly face this

Trump's tariffs seem a much more likely culprit for the dramatic slowdown in job growth in the past year than AI.

Democrats resoundingly defend red district in Louisiana, denying GOP its first pickup Republicans have yet to flip a single legislative seat since Trump's return

Since not *everyone* is obsessively checking election results on a Saturday night, you might've missed that Democrats racked up a massive win in rural Louisiana, defending a Trump+13 seat by a 24-point margin in a special election.

Catch up with our complete writeup!

Tim Dillon: Kash Patel's a liar. He's a big fat liar, and he should resign. He said there is no credible information about who Epstein trafficked women to. The information that we have, he knows he's lying.

Trump, yesterday, on his economy:

"I'm very proud of it"

ADP private-sector jobs data released last week showing sharp slowdown in job growth under Trump:

adpemploymentreport.com

The Big Ugly Law created a massive health care crisis in this country.

On top of that, Republicans just let the ACA tax credits expire.

Affordable health care is NOT a Republican priority.

Payroll giant ADP reported that employers in the private sector added just 22,000 jobs in January, about half the size of the 45,000-job gain economists were expecting. https://cnn.it/3ZORhoz

"sobering," indeed

Between ADP, Challenger, Revelio and, now, JOLTS, the job market this week is -- as @elerianm.bsky.social said today -- "sobering."

SO. MUCH. WINNING.

Note: The slowdown is even more apparent if you look at the first 12 months under Trump (which includes Jan. 2026) and the last 12 months under Biden (which included Jan. 2025).

Private payroll growth in January misses expectations as market awaits official jobs data US private employers added fewer positions than anticipated last month, according to the private payroll processor ADP, starting 2026 off on a downbeat note.

The job market is getting hammered. SO. MUCH. WINNING.

ADP: "Job creation took a step back in 2025, with private employers adding 398,000 jobs, down from 771,000 in 2024," ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said in a statement.

finance.yahoo.com/news/private...

Private payrolls rose by just 22,000 in January, far short of expectations, ADP says The U.S. labor market barely budged in January, with hiring below even muted expectations.

Jobs? What jobs? ADP new job numbers fail to impress coming in below expectations. www.cnbc.com/2026/02/04/a...