Several Republican senators have expressed alarm after President Donald Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer following a disappointing July jobs report. The report showed the economy added just 73,000 jobs in July, with major downward revisions cutting 258,000 jobs from May and June figures.
Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming criticized the timing of the dismissal, calling it “kind of impetuous” to fire McEntarfer before determining whether the numbers were accurate. “If the president is firing the statistician because he doesn’t like the numbers but they are accurate, then that’s a problem,” Lummis said.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis was more direct in his criticism: “If she was just fired because the president or whoever decided to fire the director just did it because they didn’t like the numbers, they ought to grow up.” Tillis, who recently announced he won’t seek reelection, has previously opposed Trump on key legislation.
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky questioned whether firing McEntarfer would improve economic data. “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,” Paul noted.
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Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska added that firing McEntarfer makes the numbers even less trustworthy, quipping, “When you don’t like the message, fire the messenger.”
Trump defended his decision, claiming without evidence that the jobs numbers were “phony” and accusing McEntarfer of manipulating data to benefit Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. “We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
McEntarfer, who was confirmed by the Senate in an 86-8 vote in January 2024, had previously worked at the Census Bureau, Treasury Department, and White House Council of Economic Advisers. In the interim, the bureau’s second-in-command, William Wiatrowski, will step in to lead the agency until Trump nominates a permanent replacement.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer supported Trump’s decision, citing “a recent string of major revisions” that have “raised concerns about decisions being made by the Biden-appointed Labor Commissioner.”
William Beach, McEntarfer’s predecessor who was appointed by Trump during his first term, condemned the firing as “totally groundless” and said it “sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau.”
The BLS typically updates previous months’ employment numbers as it collects more data. The significant downward adjustments in the July report showed the slowest quarterly job creation since early 2020 during COVID-19 lockdowns. This news rattled financial markets, causing the S&P 500 index to drop by 1.6% in a single day.
The controversy highlights tensions between statistical independence and political control, with economists warning that undermining data integrity could harm the Federal Reserve’s ability to make sound policy decisions.
