On Friday, the president removed Erika McEntarfer as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics just hours after new figures showed the economy was not doing as well as expected.
That decision didn’t go over well — even with Republicans.
Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming told NBC News the firing seemed “kind of impetuous.”
“If the president is firing the statistician because he doesn’t like the numbers but they are accurate, then that’s a problem,” she said. “It’s not the statistician’s fault if the numbers are accurate and that they’re not what the president had hoped for.”
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Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina went even further. “If she was just fired because the president or whoever decided to fire the director just did it because they didn’t like the numbers, they ought to grow up,” he said.
The backlash didn’t stop there.
Senator Rand Paul, a former presidential candidate, said firing government officials who handle statistics raises real concerns about politicising data.
“We have to look somewhere for objective statistics,” Paul said. “When the people providing the statistics are fired, it makes it much harder to make judgments… that the statistics won’t be politicised.”
Trump didn’t seem to care. He posted online that McEntarfer was out, calling her a “Biden political appointee.” But that’s not true. She’s a career civil servant who was confirmed with bipartisan support in January 2024.
Among those who voted for her confirmation were JD Vance, now Trump’s vice president, and Marco Rubio, now secretary of state.
Even so, some Republicans are backing Trump. Senator Roger Marshall from Kansas said, “Her cooked-up numbers have misled the American people for too long.”
The numbers Trump didn’t like were simple. The US added only 73,000 jobs in July. That’s far below the expected 110,000. On top of that, the numbers for May and June were revised down by 258,000 jobs total.
Trump said the revised report was a “major mistake.” He called the numbers “manipulated” and said they were meant to hurt Republicans.
“In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and me, look bad,” he posted.
He also promised to replace McEntarfer with “someone much more competent and qualified.” For now, William Wiatrowski, her deputy, will take over as acting commissioner.
Trump claims the economy is “BOOMING.” But the data says otherwise. And when the data doesn’t match the message, Trump reaches for the same solution — get rid of the person delivering the facts.
Senator Chuck Schumer called it “shoot the messenger politics.” He said it’s dangerous when the president punishes people just for doing their jobs.
This isn’t the first time Trump has attacked the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He claimed last year that it inflated job numbers under Joe Biden to help the Democrats win the election.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
