What happened
The White House Sunday defended President Donald Trump from criticism over his decision Friday to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics chief Erika McEntarfer following a jobs report that showed lower-than-expected hiring in July. But Trump's economic advisers repeatedly declined to offer evidence to support his claim that the numbers were "rigged" to make him look bad.
Who said what
Trump sacked McEntarfer, a veteran labor economist confirmed by the Senate 86-8 last year, after the BLS reported job gains of only 73,000 last month and revised the May and June numbers downward by 258,000 jobs. Employment numbers are often revised as more data comes in, and these changes, "while large, were not unheard of," The Washington Post said. But they "hit at an especially sensitive point" for Trump, suggesting his tariffs and other policies have "started to seriously slow the economy."
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Trump was "absolutely not" shooting the messenger by firing McEntarfer but "wants his own people there, so that when we see the jobs numbers, they are more transparent and more reliable." Hassett told "Fox News Sunday" there were "partisan patterns" in the jobless data and "we need to understand why" the "BLS numbers" are so anemic.
This is "definitely a case of shooting the messenger," Dean Smith, the chief strategist at FolioBeyond, said to Reuters, and "it's going to undermine confidence in the data going forward." There is "no way for a commissioner to rig the jobs numbers," William Beach, a former BLS commissioner appointed by Trump in 2017, told CNN's "State of the Union." It's a "preposterous charge," former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said on ABC's "This Week." And firing an agency head over numbers you don't like is "way beyond anything that Richard Nixon ever did."
What next?
Trump Sunday night called McEntarfer's report a "scam" filled with "ridiculous" numbers and said he would announce her replacement "over the next three, four days."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
‘Peak consumption has become the Holy Grail of the energy debate’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Nadine Menendez gets 4.5 years in bribery caseSpeed Read Menendez's husband was previously sentenced to 11 years in prison
-
Koreans detained in US Hyundai raid return homeSpeed Read Over 300 Koreans were detained at the plant last week
-
Calls for both calm and consequences follow Kirk killingTALKING POINTS The suspected assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk has some public figures pleading for restraint, while others agitate for violent reprisals
-
Why does Donald Trump keep showing up at major sporting events?Today's Big Question Trump has appeared at the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and other events
-
‘Democracy is under threat globally’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Former top FBI agents sue, claiming Trump purgeSpeed Read The agents alleged they were targeted by a “campaign of retribution”
-
Why does Trump keep interfering in the NYC mayoral race?Today's Big Question The president has seemingly taken an outsized interest in his hometown elections, but are his efforts to block Zohran Mamdani about political expediency or something deeper?
-
Judge lets Cook stay at Fed while appealing ousterSpeed Read Trump had attempted to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to TrumpSpeed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raidsSpeed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
