Hours after the release of a jobs report that showed hiring has been weak, President Trump ordered the Bureau of Labor Statistics' commissioner fired. "I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY," Trump posted Friday on social media, Bloomberg reports. "She 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." The president did not provide any evidence that Erika McEntarfer had politicized the report or otherwise doctored the data.
The statistics agencies have been insulated from politics to allow them to produce accurate and reliable information, per Axios. The bureau, which has a top-notch reputation globally among collectors of labor information, is part of the Department of Labor. Its reports have nonetheless been repeatedly criticized by Trump and congressional Republicans, per CNBC, partly for large revisions such as the ones in Friday's report. "No one can be that wrong?" Trump posted. He also wrote that the economy is booming, and the new data was dramatic enough to shake such contentions. Stocks fell off sharply in trading after the report was released.
Trump had proposed in his budget that the bureau's staff be cut by 8%, at a time when the agency is dealing with growing amounts of data. The bureau also tracks economic metrics such as employment and consumer prices, per CNBC. Trump appointed Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. No replacement for McEntarfer has been announced. Bill Wiatrowski, the deputy director of the BLS, hired on during the Obama administration, per NBC News, which confirmed that McEntarfer has been dismissed.
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