President Trump on Sunday defended his decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) following a weak jobs report, a move that has sparked broad pushback.
Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform asserted that fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer “had the biggest miscalculations in over 50 years,” portraying Friday’s dismal jobs numbers as the latest example.
The president alleged the labor official “did the same thing just before the Presidential Election, when she lifted the numbers for jobs to an all time high. I then won the Election, anyway, and she readjusted the numbers downward, calling it a mistake, of almost one million jobs. A SCAM!”
“She did it again, with another massive ‘correction,’ and got FIRED!” Trump added.
White House officials offered similar arguments Sunday in defending McEntarfer’s ouster, which came hours after the Labor Department released data showing the U.S. only added 73,000 jobs in July, far fewer than economists anticipated.
And the department reported stunning revisions to labor figures for May and June, showing 258,000 fewer jobs overall than previously reported.
Trump’s decision to fire the labor statistics head over the jobs report sparked immediate blowback on Capitol Hill, with Democrats accusing the White House of going after the messenger and attempting to silence those detailing a weak labor market during his tenure.
“Just absolutely insane, absolutely nuts. The economy is tanking and he’s terrified and he’s acting like a dictator,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
“That’s some weird Soviet s‑‑‑,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) added. “Blaming the messenger? Nothing’s ever his fault.”
Trump on Friday similarly claimed without evidence that the jobs numbers were “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” called it a “preposterous charge,” noting the numbers are compiled “by teams of literally hundreds of people following detailed procedures that are in manuals.”
“There’s no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated this number,” said Summers, who served in top roles in the Clinton and Obama administrations. “The numbers are in line with what we’re seeing from all kinds of private sector sources.”
Summers said he was “surprised that other officials have not responded by resigning themselves.”
Former BLS chief William Beach said McEntarfer’s firing sets a “dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau.”
McEntarfer was nominated by former President Biden and confirmed by the GOP-led Senate early last year in an 86-8 vote.
White House officials said Sunday that Trump wants his own nominee to run the bureau, which is tasked with working on data related to other economic metrics as well such as inflation.
“The president wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they’re more transparent and more reliable,” Kevin Hassett, chair of the National Economic Council, said on “Meet the Press.”
