Trump Defends Firing of BLS Head After Employment Report

White House officials backed President Trump’s decision to dismiss the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) leader after a disappointing jobs report surfaced.

According to an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” a spokesman stated, “The president wants his people, ensuring the numbers are more transparent and reliable.”

In a separate conversation on “Fox News Sunday,” Hassett explained that the BLS commissioner must clarify significant changes, like those apparent in Friday’s jobs report.

“The significant downward revisions feel puzzling. It’s not well explained, and the market seems uneasy with how noisy the data is,” Hassett commented.

U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer, one of Trump’s key tariff negotiators, expressed real concerns about the job figures shared by the Labor Bureau during his interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” He noted, “Even last year during the campaign, the job totals fluctuated drastically, and it seems the president is genuinely worried. This isn’t just about today; it’s influenced by all I observed last year.”

Greer added, “I hope we can rely on some accurate numbers. Revisions happen, but some go to extremes, and that’s something we recognize about the president’s perspective.”

On Friday, Trump reportedly told his team to expect only 73,000 job additions for July, and after revising significantly the numbers for May and June, he ordered the termination of BLS Commissioner Erica Mantelfer.

This action has sparked swift backlash from Democrats and some Republicans, with calls for investigations emerging.

McEntarfer, who was nominated under former President Biden, received strong bipartisan support in the Senate last year with a vote of 86-8.

Advisers to Trump emphasized the president’s worries regarding labor data revisions while backing Mantelfer’s firing.

Hassett pointed out that the government’s employment figures have experienced substantial fluctuations since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Over recent years, we’ve witnessed extensive revisions of job numbers. They were initially reliable for guiding policy decisions and markets during the pandemic. But when Covid hit, response rates plummeted, leading to frequent significant adjustments,” Hassett remarked.

Trump has suggested that labor statistics revisions during the Biden administration have inflated employment figures supporting Kamala Harris’s White House endeavors prior to the election, despite lacking evidence that Mantelfer manipulated work numbers ahead of the 2024 election.

In response to the firing, Mantelfer shared on social media that serving in the role was “an honor of my life,” commending the “important work” undertaken by government officials.