President Trump on Friday directed his staff to fireside the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics following a dismal jobs report he blamed squarely on the appointee of former President Biden.
Trump stated on Fact Social that the commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, had “faked the Jobs Numbers” earlier than the 2024 election in an effort to increase former Vice President Kamala Harris’s White Home bid.
An administration official later confirmed the firing.
Trump cited labor statistics revisions throughout the Biden administration that boosted job numbers forward of the election. The roles report launched Friday confirmed a major downturn throughout Trump’s administration in Could and June, indicating the U.S. added 258,000 fewer jobs over these months than had initially been reported.
“No one can be that wrong?” Trump stated. “We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”
McEntarfer was nominated by Biden in 2023 and confirmed by the Senate in 2024 because the sixteenth commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is a part of the Division of Labor. She was confirmed within the Senate in a bipartisan 86-8 vote. Notably, Vice President Vance and secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had been each senators on the time, voted in favor of her nomination.
The president recommended that the roles report was politically motivated, an argument he has additionally made when he railed in opposition to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not reducing rates of interest.
“The Economy is BOOMING under ‘TRUMP’ despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting ‘Kamala’ elected – How did that work out? Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should also be put ‘out to pasture,’” Trump stated.
In a second social media publish, Trump borrowed a label from when he contested his 2020 election loss, calling the most recent jobs report “rigged.”
“In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,” Trump stated.
The White Home earlier on Friday acknowledged that the roles report, which confirmed the U.S. added solely 73,000 jobs in July, was dismal.
“This jobs report isn’t ideal. There’s no way around that,” prime White Home economist Stephen Miran informed CNN. “The downward revisions reflect a couple of anomalous factors. First of all, about 60 percent of the downward revision is due to quirks of the seasonal adjustment process.”
Trump on Friday additionally lodged insults once more at Powell for not reducing rates of interest, urging the central financial institution board to wrest management from him. He has additionally threatened to fireside Powell and final month informed GOP lawmakers he would quickly transfer to take action earlier than backing off.
This story was up to date at 3:55 p.m.
