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Elder Lister
On August 1, 2025, President Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), just hours after the release of a disappointing July jobs report. The report showed the U.S. economy added only 73,000 jobs for the month, well below expectations, and included major downward revisions to May and June figures—erasing about 258,000 jobs from earlier estimates. Trump accused McEntarfer of manipulating the data to politically damage Republicans and himself, calling the numbers “rigged,” although he provided no evidence to support the claim.
The firing drew immediate criticism from economists and former officials across the political spectrum, who warned that removing a statistics chief over unfavorable numbers threatens the independence and credibility of U.S. economic data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, long regarded as a politically neutral source of labor market information, relies on routine processes to adjust earlier job figures as more complete survey responses arrive—often from small businesses and public-sector employers like school districts. Experts emphasized that the revisions in question reflected this standard methodology, not misconduct or bias.
Following McEntarfer’s removal, William Wiatrowski, the BLS deputy commissioner, was named acting head of the agency. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer supported the president’s decision, citing concern over the unusually large revisions during McEntarfer’s tenure. Still, critics argued that the move set a dangerous precedent, undermining public trust in official statistics at a time when economic signals—including rising unemployment to 4.2% and weakness in education and manufacturing—were already causing concern.
While Trump framed the dismissal as a step toward ensuring “accurate numbers,” opponents saw it as an unprecedented politicization of a key federal statistical agency, with potentially long-lasting effects on how U.S. economic data is produced and perceived.
