Trump fired its director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Erika McEntarfer, on Friday, alleging that the most recent jobs report had been “rigged” to make him look bad.
The White House National Economic Council director, Kevin Hassett,  , disputed Trump’s claim that he was “shooting the messenger” and that hiring was significantly lower than previously thought.
According to Hassett, “the president wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they’re more transparent and reliable,” the decline in job growth for May and June was “unprecedented” and “historically significant outlier” according to Hassett on NBC News’ Meet the Press.
We want to know why there are significant changes and significant revisions, such as those that are anticipated for the jobs data in September. We want to hear what it means.
Hassett once more cast doubt on the official figures on Fox News, implying without any proof that employment statistics can occasionally contain “partisan patterns.”
He told Fox News Sunday, “I believe what we need is a fresh pair of eyes at the BLS, someone who can clean this thing up.”
Jamieson Greer, the president’s representative for trade, defended Trump’s dismissal of McEntarfer, claiming that the jobs data “were real concerns.”
Greer told CBS News’ Face the Nation, “You want to have some dependable numbers.”
“There are revisions always,” he said, “but occasionally you see revisions that are very extreme.” And it’s the president, as you all know. He has the option of who is employed by the executive branch.
The most recent employment statistics released on Friday revealed that there were 258, 000 fewer jobs created in May and June than previously anticipated, and that fewer than expected 73, 000 more jobs were added in July, undermining Trump’s claim that his sweeping tariffs haven’t had a negative impact on the economy.
Within the next few days, Trump promised to name a new BLS director and a candidate to fill the opening position left by resignation of governor Adriana Kugler.
Economicians and Republican and Democratic lawmakers have condemned Trump’s dismissal of McEntarfer, a career bureaucrat who was appointed in 2024 with overwhelmingly bipartisan support.
The Friends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a group led by former BLS directors William Beach and Erica L. Groshen, accused Trump of politicising the agency and undermining trust in official government data in a statement released on Friday.
The organization claimed that US official statistics are the world’s gold standard.
Source: Aljazeera
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