President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, just hours after publicly denouncing the latest U.S. employment data as “rigged.” The move drew immediate backlash, including from McEntarfer’s predecessor, who called the firing “groundless.”
The latest jobs report revealed that U.S. payrolls grew by just 73,000 in July, with figures from the previous two months revised downward by nearly 260,000. Over the past three months, average job growth has dropped to just 35,000—marking the weakest pace since the pandemic.
Soon after the numbers were released, Trump took to Truth Social to issue a sharply worded response.
“I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,” he posted.
Trump followed up with another post: “In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”
Former BLS Chief Responds
William Beach, who previously held the role of commissioner at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, issued a strong rebuke Friday following the dismissal.
“The totally groundless firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, my successor as Commissioner of Labor Statistics at BLS, sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau,” he said in a statement posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Beach argued that Trump’s decision politicizes a process that is designed to remain objective and data-driven.
“The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news. The Commissioner does not determine what the numbers are but simply reports on what the data show,” he said. “The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference. The BLS uses the same proven, transparent, reliable process to produce estimates every month. Every month, BLS revises the prior two months’ employment estimates to reflect slower-arriving, more-accurate information.”
Beach also warned that firing McEntarfer “undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers.”
He concluded with a warning: “U.S. official statistics are the gold standard globally. When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science.”
