The White House on Sunday defended U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, even as critics warned that the move could erode trust in the nation’s economic data.
Trump removed McEntarfer without any notice after the agency reported that U.S. employers added far fewer jobs than expected in July.
Highlights
- Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after a weak jobs report and major employment revisions.
- Experts warn firing McEntarfer risks undermining trust in U.S. economic data and the credibility of long-established government surveys.
- The July jobs report showed 73,000 new jobs, far below expectations, with May and June revised down by 258,000, rattling stock markets amid rising tariffs.
The BLS also revised down employment growth for May and June by a combined 258,000 jobs, one of the largest downward revisions in decades, except for the COVID-era.
Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer after the BLS reported far fewer jobs than expected
Image credits: Erika McEntarfer
Trump accused McEntarfer of faking job numbers but offered no evidence of data manipulation.
He said he would name a new BLS commissioner within three or four days.
“Why should anybody trust numbers?” Trump told reporters on Friday. “I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election, and there were other times - so you know what I did? I fired her, and you know what I did? The right thing”
The BLS is responsible for tracking key U.S. economic indicators, including employment and inflation.
The agency stated that the revisions were based on additional reports from businesses and government agencies, as well as recalculations of seasonal adjustments.
McEntarfer, who had led the agency since 2023, said in a post on Bluesky that serving as commissioner was “the honor of my life.” She praised the “vital and important work” of the agency’s career staff.
White House officials defended Trump’s decision, saying the president had valid concerns about the accuracy of recent reports.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CBS’s Face the Nation that Trump had “real concerns” about the data.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said on Fox News that the president “is right to call for new leadership.”
Greer acknowledged that revisions are common but said the size of the latest changes was “really extreme.”
The firing drew sharp criticism from former officials and economists, who said it could undermine public confidence in U.S. statistics.
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
“It undermines credibility,” said William Beach, a former BLS commissioner and co-chair of the group Friends of the BLS. “There is no way for a commissioner to rig the jobs numbers. Every year we've revised the numbers. When I was commissioner, we had a 500,000 job revision during President Trump’s first term,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union.
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers called Trump’s actions “preposterous.” Speaking on ABC’s This Week, he said, “Firing the head of a key government agency because you don't like the numbers they report, which come from surveys using long-established procedures, is what happens in authoritarian countries, not democratic ones.”
“This is way beyond anything that Richard Nixon ever did,” he told host George Stephanopoulos.
Former officials and economists warn this could undermine public confidence in the U.S.
The job numbers added to concerns about the U.S. economy as Trump presses ahead with tariffs on dozens of trading partners.
The July report showed that employers added only 73,000 jobs, well below the forecast of 109,000. The downward revisions to May and June employment growth brought those months’ combined total down by about 250,000 jobs.
The announcement rattled U.S. stock markets, which had already been shaken by Trump’s new tariffs, ranging from 10% to 50%, on imports from several countries. Major indexes closed sharply lower on Friday.
Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said the jobs report was a “game-changer.”
“The labor market is deteriorating quickly” because of uncertainty from the tariffs, he added.
Image credits: Tom Williams/Getty Images
Trump defended his trade policies, saying they would boost U.S. manufacturing and rebalance global trade. “The economy is booming under Trump,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said on CBS that large revisions to economic data could undermine public confidence.
“They can get this data, I think, other ways and I think that's where the focus ought to be: how do we get the data to be more resilient and more predictable and more understandable? Because what bounces around is restatements ... that creates doubt about it,” he said.
The firing also came after Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler announced her resignation, opening a spot on the central bank’s board. Trump said he would announce a nominee for the position in the next couple of days.
The Labor Department said Deputy Commissioner William Wiatrowski would serve as acting BLS head until a permanent replacement is appointed.
Image credits: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
McEntarfer, a career government economist, was nominated by former President Joe Biden in 2023 and confirmed with broad bipartisan support, including from current Vice President JD Vance.
Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, defended McEntarfer, saying she had conducted herself with “great integrity.” He warned that Trump’s actions were damaging U.S. credibility.
“It is imperative that decision-makers understand that government statistics are unbiased and of the highest quality. By casting doubt on that, the President is damaging the United States,” he wrote on social media.