Trump responds to his failure to create jobs by firing the U.S. labor statistics chief

Confronted with evidence of his own failures, the president could've changed direction. He instead found it easier to fire his labor statistics chief.Aug. 1, 2025, 3:09 PM EDT

By Steve Benen

On the first Friday of the month, Americans get to see new job and unemployment numbers, but presidents don’t have to wait quite that long: They get an advance look. It’s just a perk of the job.

This week, with roughly two hours before the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest jobs data, Donald Trump published a rather furious missive to his social media platform, calling his own handpicked Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, “a stubborn MORON.” The president went on to suggest the Fed’s board “should assume control” of the entire institution unless Powell agrees to “substantially lower interest rates, NOW.”

The Republican added that the Fed’s board members must be prepared to “DO WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS HAS TO BE DONE!”

It was, to be sure, a rather unhinged tantrum, but it was also a pretty big hint: Trump had seen the job numbers, and he wasn’t pleased.

The public soon learned that the job totals were quite awful, and over the first seven months of the year, job growth in the United States slowed to a 16-year low(not including the totals from the pandemic in 2020). The president obviously had reason to be disappointed — he keeps telling people how “hot” the economy is, and reality keeps getting in the way — but he has no one to blame but himself: It’s his own agenda that’s done so much damage to the job market.

Confronted with evidence of his own failure, Trump announced that he’s changing course and pursuing a more responsible economic direction.

No, I’m just kidding. He’s actually firing the commissioner of labor statistics. NBC News reported:

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hours after a stunning government report showed that hiring had slowed down significantly over the past three months. Taking to Truth Social, he attacked Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the BLS. He claimed that the country’s jobs reports ‘are being produced by Biden appointee’ and ordered his administration to terminate her.

An administration official told NBC News shortly after the post appeared that McEntarfer had indeed been fired.

Julie Bolejack, MBA