Trump lashes out by FIRING Biden-appointed senior official after disappointing jobs numbers report
Donald Trump demanded the firing of a top Joe Biden official overseeing the country’s ‘jobs numbers’ after a lackluster report.
The president is taking out his frustration on Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, who was appointed to the role by Biden.
He accused her of ‘faking’ jobs numbers before the 2024 election to ‘try and boost Kamala’s chances of victory,’ in a blistering post to Truth Social.
‘We need accurate jobs numbers. I have directed my team to fire this Biden political appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,’ he stated.
Hiring growth dropped dramatically last month and unemployment ticked up, the latest jobs report released on Friday showed.
Nonfarm payrolls added 73,000 in July, far lower than the 100,000 expected by analysts. The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.2 percent.
The report also sharply revised down the figures for May and June by a combined 258,000 jobs from the previously released figures.
Hiring growth dropped dramatically last month and unemployment ticked up, the latest jobs report released on Friday showed
Trump has targeted Fed Chair Jerome Powell calling him ‘too late’ on lowering interest rates
The president is taking out his frustration on Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics
Following the revision June’s total was left at just 14,000 and May’s at 19,000 — effectively flat. Analysts say July’s figure is also likely to be revised lower, possibly into negative territory.
Trump hammered the economist for those revisions, although they are routine in the government’s monthly job reports – sometimes going up, sometimes going down as businesses around the country report on their payrolls.
Stocks tumbled in pre-market trading with the S&P 500 down around one percent, and the Nasdaq down around 1.1 percent before the bell.
The latest figures suggest cracks are in fact starting to show up in the economy, despite a slew of previous better-than-expected economic data released recently.
It comes after the Federal Reserve once again held rates steady at its July meeting on Wednesday.
The weaker figures could incentivize the Fed to lower interest rates at its next meeting in September.
Trump has targeted Fed Chair Jerome Powell calling him ‘too late’ on lowering interest rates.
‘Too Little, Too Late. Jerome “Too Late” Powell is a disaster. DROP THE RATE!’ the president wrote on Truth Social following the report’s release.
According to her LinkedIn bio, McEntarfer previously served as an economist at the Census Bureau and at the Treasury Department, as well as working as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisors for a year during the Biden administration.
Her bio statement is a dry statement filled with economics lingo. ‘My research is focused on labor market dynamics and interactions between firms and workers in the economy and has been published in the Journal of Labor Economics, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives,’ she writes.
