Senior Republican lawmakers have condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the head of the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), Erika McEntarfer, after a report showed the national economy added only 73,000 jobs in July, far fewer than expected. Trump defended his decision, claiming without evidence that the numbers were “RIGGED” to make him look bad and that the US economy was “BOOMING” under his watch.
The firing of McEntarfer, who was confirmed to her role in January 2024 during Joe Biden’s presidency, has alarmed members of Trump’s own party. Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said, “If the president is firing the statistician because he doesn’t like the numbers but they are accurate, then that’s a problem. It’s not the statistician’s fault if the numbers are accurate and that they’re not what the president had hoped for.” Lummis added that firing McEntarfer was “kind of impetuous” and that if the numbers are unreliable, the public should be told.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, also criticized Trump’s decision, saying, “If she was just fired because the president or whoever decided to fire the director just… because they didn’t like the numbers, they ought to grow up.” Kentucky Senator Rand Paul questioned whether McEntarfer’s firing would improve the numbers, stating, “We have to look somewhere for objective statistics. When the people providing the statistics are fired, it makes it much harder to make judgments that you know, the statistics won’t be politicized.”
William Beach, a former BLS commissioner appointed by Trump, called McEntarfer’s firing “totally groundless” and said it set a “dangerous precedent” and undermined the BLS’s statistical mission. Beach co-signed a letter with “Friends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” accusing Trump of seeking to blame someone for bad news and calling the rationale for McEntarfer’s firing “without merit.” The letter asserted that the dismissal “undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers.”
The letter also pointed out that the jobs tabulation process “is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference” and that US official statistics “are the gold standard globally.” It warned that politicizing economic data can destroy public trust in all official statistics and government science.
Democrats have also criticized Trump’s decision. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders described it as “the sign of an authoritarian type” and said it would make it harder for Americans to trust government information. Paul Schroeder, executive director of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, called Trump’s allegation against McEntarfer “very damaging and outrageous,” saying it undermines the integrity of federal economic statistics and politicizes data that should remain independent and trustworthy.