Story highlights The government announced 235,000 new jobs in February

Trump previously called into question Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers

Washington (CNN) The unemployment numbers candidate Donald Trump assailed for months on the campaign trail as "phony" and fictional are suddenly up to snuff.

The numbers haven't changed, nor has the Bureau of Labor Statistics' methodology for compiling them, but with the jobless rate ticking down and hiring on the rise, Trump is eager to point to the economic indicators as a sign that his presidency has been a boon for the economy.

"I talked to the President prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly: 'They may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now,' " Spicer said Friday from the White House podium, hours after the government announced 235,000 new jobs in February and a dip in the unemployment rate to 4.7% from 4.8%.

Spicer's response prompted inevitable laughter in a room of reporters mindful of Trump's repeated smear of government-compiled jobs numbers.

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"Don't believe these phony numbers when you hear 4.9 (%) and 5% unemployment," Trump told his supporters after winning the New Hampshire primary in early 2016. "The number's probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42%."