WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump said he’s ordered the firing of Erika McEntarfer, the U.S. commissioner of Labor Statistics, accusing her without evidence of manipulating figures for “political purposes” after the Labor Department reported the U.S. added a disappointing 73,000 jobs in July.
Trump on Aug. 1 announced the move in a post on his social media app Truth Social, writing that he was “just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer.”
“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,” Trump said. “Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”
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The Senate in January 2024 confirmed McEntarfer, an appointment of former President Joe Biden. A labor economist, McEntarfer has worked 20 years in the federal government, including previous stints at the U.S. Census Bureau and Treasury Department.
In addition to Friday’s release of the July jobs report ‒ which was well below the 105,000 new jobs that had been estimated ‒ the Labor Department’s job gains for May and June were revised down by 258,000, portraying a much weaker labor market than believed in late spring and early summer.
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“McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months,” Trump said. “Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative.”
Trump also accused McEntarfer of “faking the jobs numbers before the (2024) election” to help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Trump pointed to robust jobs reports in March, August and September of 2024 that were later revised lower.
Contributing: Paul Davidson of USA TODAY
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump orders firing of Labor statistics head after weak jobs report
