Trump orders the firing of the statistics commissioner over the poor jobs report

Donald Trump took a step this Friday to politicize a part of the government that was once considered independent. In the purest authoritarian, Putin-esque style, Trump ordered his team to "immediately" fire the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, because he disliked the poor job creation figures recorded last month. He accused her, without any evidence, of rigging the numbers against him.

This figure fell to 73,000 new hires due to the slowdown in the labor market, due in part to the impact of tariffs and restrictions on immigrants. Unemployment rose to 4.2%, also influenced by the downward revision of reports from previous months, with 19,000 new jobs in May and June instead of 291,000.

Trump welcomed those high figures with jubilation, but now he accuses McEntarfer, appointed by Joe Biden, of manipulating the commissioner to harm him. The commissioner merely oversees the work of many experts. Trump is thus paving the way for obtaining data at his whim, tailored to his interests, as is the case in any undemocratic regime.

The decision caused consternation and was seen as another factor creating total distrust among investors, already deeply concerned by the poor jobs report and the escalating trade war unleashed by the US president.

In a lengthy, furious social media post, searching for someone to blame for the weakening labor market other than himself, Trump claimed that McEntarfer worked to benefit Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. A look at the Department of Statistics reports from the time confirms that, on the eve of the 2024 elections, unemployment data was anything but positive, a fact that the then-Republican candidate used to his advantage.

Once the labor market report was released this Friday, the president's advisors appeared before the chambers to justify the drop in hiring as seasonal. There was no error on the part of the government, but none of them blamed the commissioner for anything, nor did they mention suspicions of manipulation against the person in charge of overseeing these labor statistics.

McEntarfer was nominated by Biden in 2024 after a long career at the Census Bureau and other agencies, where she served under other presidents, including Trump during his first term.

In her Senate nomination to become commissioner, she received broad bipartisan support. One of those who voted for her was then-Republican Senator JD Vance, now vice president in the Trump administration.