U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer weighed in on President Trump’s decision to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner Erika McEntarfer, saying the commander-in-chief has “real concerns” about the jobs numbers that extend beyond the dismal Friday report.
“Even last year during the campaign, there were enormous swings in the jobs numbers, and so sounds to me like the President has real concerns. You know, not just based on today’s but everything we saw last year,” Greer said during his Friday appearance on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.”
“You want to be able to have somewhat reliable numbers. There are always revisions, but sometimes you see these revisions go in really extreme ways. And it’s, you know, the President is the President. He can choose who works in the executive branch,” Greer, one of Trump’s top tariff negotiators, told host Margaret Brennan.
Trump fired McEntarfer after a Friday morning jobs report from the Labor Department showed the U.S. added 258,000 fewer jobs in May and June than what was previously reported. The report also said the country added 73,000 jobs in July.
Trump axed the BLS chief Friday afternoon, accusing her of manipulating data to make him and Republicans look bad.
“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,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social.
The firing of McEntarfer was met with criticism from Democrats, but also by William Beach, who was appointed as BLS head during Trump’s first term.
Greer said on Friday that the nation will see a “big” increase in the number of manufacturing jobs now that Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” was signed into law.
“I think that, you know, our manufacturers know that they have a clear and certain path forward on that now,” he said.
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