Addressing a meeting of McDonald’s restaurant owners, President Donald Trump distorted his predecessor’s record on employment, falsely claiming that government jobs were increasing while “real jobs” were declining. The number of private-sector jobs increased every year under former President Joe Biden’s term and was up about 12% by the time he left office.
At the McDonald’s Impact Summit on Nov. 17 in Washington, D.C., Trump told the franchise owners and operators, “Government jobs were going up, real jobs were going down. … You are so damn lucky that I won that election.”
The president also claimed later, “In nine months, we’ve lifted over 600,000 Americans off of food stamp[s], and that’s a record.” Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps, declined more than that in the final months of Biden’s presidency.
Government Jobs vs. Private-Sector Jobs
When Trump said that “government jobs were going up, real jobs were going down” under Biden, we assume he meant private-sector jobs when referring to “real” jobs. But the number of private-sector jobs grew every year of Biden’s term.

