In a dramatic shakeup at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, President Donald Trump abruptly dismissed Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday following the release of a tepid July employment report, which not only fell short of expectations but also revised prior job gains down sharply. The president alleged that McEntarfer manipulated labor data to cast his administration in a negative light.
McEntarfer, a seasoned economist with a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech and a résumé that spans the Census Bureau and the Council of Economic Advisers, had been confirmed as BLS commissioner in early 2024 after being nominated by then-President Joe Biden. Her tenure came under fire as Trump accused her of skewing job figures in the lead-up to the 2024 election to favor Biden, and then altering them downward post-election to harm Trump's image.
“The numbers have been cooked,” Trump declared on Truth Social. “This is the same pattern we saw right after the 2024 election—strong numbers before, a sudden collapse after. Over 818,000 jobs vanished in a blink. Complete fiction!”
However, Trump’s claims lack corroboration. Experts from across the political spectrum have rebuked his accusations. Former BLS commissioner William Beach, appointed by Trump himself, dismissed the idea of internal interference: “The commissioner doesn’t even see the data until it’s finalized,” he told NBC.
The independent watchdog group Friends of the BLS, co-chaired by Beach and two other former commissioners, denounced McEntarfer’s firing as politically motivated. “There is no foundation to these accusations,” their statement said. “This kind of action threatens the integrity of official economic data and risks turning trusted public statistics into political weapons.”
Still, not all voices were critical. Kevin Hassett, Trump's top economic adviser, backed the decision, arguing that the BLS has struggled with data accuracy since the onset of the pandemic. He pointed to Friday’s revisions—a net loss of 258,000 jobs from prior months—as the most severe miscalculation since