President Donald Trump Friday ordered dismissal of Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics following a government report that disclosed a significant decline in job growth in July and over the previous two months.
Trump called McEntarfer a “Biden appointee” and accused her of producing unreliable job reports. Trump fires
The president said that she be replaced with someone “much more competent and qualified,” and the importance of accurate and impartial economic data.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics had reported that the U.S. economy added only 73,000 jobs in July, a figure considerably below expectations, and revised May and June’s job numbers downward by over 200,000 jobs combined. Trump fires
Erika McEntarfer was nominated by President Joe Biden in July 2023 and confirmed by the Senate in January 2024 with broad bipartisan support, securing an 86-8 vote.
Over her two-decade career in public service, McEntarfer has held positions in the Census Bureau, the Treasury Department, and served on the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. Trump fires
Without presenting any strong evidence, Trump alleged that McEntarfer had manipulated jobs data prior to the election to benefit his Democratic rival and former vice president Kamala Harris’s campaign. Trump fires
Historically, the BLS regularly revises key economic figures, including the jobs report, GDP, and inflation data, due to the vast scale of the U.S. economy and the nature of survey data collection. Trump fires
Such revisions are seen as standard practices and do not imply any form of misconduct or data manipulation.
However, Trump said Erica McEntarfer “will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”
Some commentators linked less than expected job growth to President Trump’s tariff policy, calling it a fallout of concerns over expected high prices and fears of economic and trade uncertainty.
Politically, the reaction to Trump’s move was mostly along party lines.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer praised President Trump’s decision to fire the BLS head Erika McEntarfer. The Bureau is housed at the Labor Department.
“I agree wholeheartedly with @POTUS that our jobs numbers must be fair, accurate, and never manipulated for political purposes,” Chavez-DeRemer wrote.
“A recent string of major revisions have come to light and raised concerns about decisions being made by the Biden-appointed Labor Commissioner,” she added.
Trump’s tariffs are nothing more than a $2,400 tax on the American people
“The chickens are coming home to roost on Donald Trump’s destructive trade war,
and the American people are paying the price.”
—@SenSchumer pic.twitter.com/rOh8cAyboG
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) August 1, 2025
Democrats criticized the move, with Senate Majority Leader, saying “What does a bad leader do when they get bad news? Shoot the messenger,”
“That’s just what happened with the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
Independent Senator Sander Bernie said, “in America, you do not fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for releasing a jobs report that you don’t like. That’s what authoritarians do.” Trump fires
“We need serious economists in these positions, not hacks who will only tell you what you want to hear,” he wrote in a post on X. Trump fires
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Iftikhar Ali is a veteran Pakistani journalist, former president of UN Correspondents Association, and a recipient of the Pride of Performance civil award
