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August 1, 2025
Trump 'soft, weak and afraid' in firing labor statistics chief
McEntarfer: Wyden

Peter Mallouk on Trump firing top labor official: 'This is not healthy'

The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee called President Donald Trump's firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika
McEntarfer on Friday "the act of somebody who is soft, weak and afraid
to own up to the reality of the damage his chaos is inflicting on our
economy. "

"Bottom line, Trump wants to cook the books, " said Sen. Ron Wyden of
Oregon in a statement shortly after Trump fired McEntarfer on the heels
of a weaker-than-expected jobs report by the BLS.

"Trump can't get through a single day without making some catastrophic
decision that undermines confidence in the U. S. economy, and although
the Bureau of Labor Statistics might sound obscure to people outside Washington, Trump's interference with jobs data is a nightmare scenario
that will do long-lasting harm, " Wyden said.

"It's long past time for Senate Republicans to find the courage to stand
up to this dictatorial behavior, and there is no way the Senate can
accept some Trump lackey as the head of BLS, " the senator said.

Wyden's criticism was echoed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-
N. Y. , who said Trump was acting like a dictator and a "bad leader" who "shoots the messenger" after hearing bad news about the economy.

"Well, Donald Trump, firing her isn't going to relieve the chaos that
you created with your ramshackle tariff regime, " Schumer said on the
Senate floor.

Trump on Friday told reporters that he fired McEntarfer because "I think
her numbers are wrong. "

"I've had issues with the numbers for a long time, " Trump said. "I've
always had problems with these numbers. "

Trump said BLS had issued positive job number reports shortly before the
2024 presidential election, when he faced incumbent Vice President
Kamala Harris, and then sharply revised the numbers downward after he
won the election.
Dr. Erika McEntarfer, Commissioner of Labor Statistics

The White House separately said that since the Covid-19 pandemic there
have been a series of sharp revisions in BLS jobs data after individual
reports were released, and pointed to that as a reason for McEntarfer's termination. The White House called Entarfer incompetent, and said she
was being fired for the same reason a business would terminate someone
for incompetency.

William Beach, who preceded McEntarfer as BLS commissioner, in a tweet
called her termination "totally groundless" and said it "sets a
dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the
Bureau. "

Trump in a Truth Social post Friday said, "In my opinion, today's Jobs
Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad
Just like when they had three great days around the 2024 Presidential
Election, and then, those numbers were "taken away" on November 15,
2024, right after the Election, when the Jobs Numbers were massively
revised DOWNWARD, making a correction of over 818,000 Jobs A TOTAL
SCAM. "

Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a post on X that BLS Deputy
Commissioner William Wiatrowski will serve as Acting Commissioner" of
the BLS until a permanent replacement is installed.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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