ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said during his opening monologue on Monday that credit for the lower black unemployment rate should be given to an “unemployed black guy,” referring to former President Obama, instead of President Trump.
The quip comes after Trump wrote a tweet directed at Jay-Z regarding improving job numbers for African-Americans in response to the famous rapper’s criticism of the president during an interview with CNN’s Van Jones.
{mosads}”Jay-Z didn’t win any of the eight Grammys he was nominated for last night but he did get a tweet from the president,” Kimmel, a staunch critic of Trump, said near the top of the show. “Jay-Z was on the Van Jones show Saturday night on CNN, and I guess Trump didn’t like what he had to say because he tweeted, ‘Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies black unemployment has just been reported to be at the lowest rate ever recorded.’ ”
Trump was responding to a comment made by Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, that president’s reported “shithole countries” comment was “really hurtful” for “the leader of the free world to speak like this.”
“It really is hurtful, more so,” Jay-Z told Jones. “Like, everyone feels anger, but after the anger it’s really hurtful, because he’s looking down on a whole population of people, and he’s so misinformed because these places have beautiful people and have beautiful everything. Like, this is the leader of the free world speaking like this.”
“I don’t know what policy he’s talking about,” Kimmel said. “He didn’t even get a piece of major legislation passed until December and black unemployment has been going down in pretty much a straight line since 2010.”
“In other words,” Kimmel concluded. “The credit for lower black unemployment ironically goes to an unemployed black guy. We’ve got a new Twitter feud. It’s Jay-Z versus crazy. They should solve this with a rap battle, winner gets to be president. I think that’s the way to go.”
Jones, a former green jobs adviser in the Obama administration, slammed Trump for his tweet.
“Someone needs to inform @realdonaldtrump that I ALREADY asked Jay Z whether black employment figures redeem Trump’s presidency,” Jones wrote to his 746,000 followers.
Jay-Z responded that it’s “not about money at the end of the day.”
“Money doesn’t equate to happiness,” he said. “You treat people like human beings — that’s the main point.”
The U.S. unemployment stands at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low.
The Labor Department reported in January that the unemployment rate for African-Americans was at 6.8 percent, its lowest rate in 45 years.
The rate has decreased steadily since early 2010, when it was reached a high of 16.5 percent.