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.
The White House didn’t respond to our question about Trump’s claim.
The number of private-sector jobs increased by 14.3 million under Biden, an 11.8% increase, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Government jobs also increased by 1.8 million, or 8.3%, a slower rate than private-sector jobs.
Some of Biden’s gains, as we’ve noted, were due to recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. So, the job gains were larger earlier in his presidency.
Under Trump, between January and September, the last month for which data are available, the number of private-sector jobs increased by 567,000, a 0.42% increase. That was slower private-sector job growth than the same time period during Biden’s last year in office, when private-sector jobs increased by 956,000 jobs, a 0.71% increase.
Previously, Trump has accurately said that during Biden’s last two years in office, about 26% of the jobs added were government jobs. But as we’ve written, about 90% of those jobs were positions in state and local government, where Biden would have no direct influence.
Trump did cut about 97,000 federal government jobs as of September, according to preliminary BLS data, while 31,000 federal government jobs were added in the same period during Biden’s last year in office. The decline during Trump’s first nine months was due partly to the efforts of his new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, purportedly to reduce government costs and increase efficiency. However, hundreds of employees who were fired have been rehired in recent months, according to reports from NPR and the Associated Press, and some government departments, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, have seen a surge in hiring.
Overall, government jobs — including federal, state and local positions — increased by 6,000 jobs from January to September.
Changes in SNAP Enrollment
Touting his other economic policies, Trump also said in his address to McDonald’s owners, “in nine months, we’ve lifted over 600,000 Americans off of food stamp[s], and that’s a record.”
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, 41.7 million people in 22.4 million households, or nearly 1 in every 8 Americans, received benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in May, the most recent month for which data is available.
As Trump said, more than 645,000 people stopped receiving SNAP assistance between January and May, according to the USDA.
But Kate Bauer, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, told us that the decline in SNAP recipients since January is not “a record.”
Between October 2024 and January 2025, the month the Trump administration began, SNAP enrollment declined by 870,304, Bauer said in an email. “Based just on this, 600,000 wouldn’t be a record decline. In general, participation has been bouncing around” between 43 million and 41 million over the past few years, she said.
From September 2024 to January 2025, SNAP enrollment did increase by 63,939 individuals, and during Biden’s entire time in office, SNAP participation went up by about 0.6%, or 255,368 people.
We asked the White House about the president’s claim that 600,000 was “a record” decrease in SNAP participants. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told us in an email, “President Trump’s proven economic formula of tax cuts, deregulation, and unleashing American energy has cooled inflation, raised real wages, and promoted growth. As a result,” Kelly said, “Americans have been lifted off of SNAP thanks to this President’s successful policies.”
Sara Bleich, a professor of public health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told us, “By design, SNAP is countercyclical, meaning that enrollment is designed to increase during economic downturns and decrease as the economy improves. During the second quarter of 2025, the economy was a bit stronger and monthly SNAP enrollment numbers are lower in May/June 2025 compared to January 2025. All that is perfectly normal and expected.”
Bleich said “several intentional actions by the Trump Administration during that period may have dampened enrollment.” She cited Trump’s executive order in February that “directed federal agencies to block undocumented people from accessing public benefits (who by the way were already ineligible for SNAP but this may have discouraged participation among immigrants who are eligible).”
Bleich also said that stricter work requirements for SNAP applicants included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will result in “more declines in SNAP participation going forward.”
“Bottom line, it is not really accurate to say that people are being ‘lifted out of the program,'” Bleich said. “SNAP is operating as normal (with people rolling off as the economy improves) and participation has simultaneously been discouraged by deliberate actions to dampen participation.”
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