Trump removes Biden appointee commissioner after disappointing jobs information

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Donald Trump did not just like the slight achieve in jobs that the government reported for July. So he fired the commissioner for labor statistics, who no one had heard of till 10 minutes in the past.

Drawback solved?

Nicely, not precisely.

Erika McEntarfer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, didn’t unilaterally make the choice that the financial system added simply 73,000 jobs in July. That determine was produced by a whole bunch of Labor Department analysts , following established guidelines, earlier than it reached her stage.

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For the president to say, with out proof, that this was "rigged"—to make him, and Republicans look dangerous–doesn’t change the underlying actuality. The quantity was disappointing. That hasn’t modified.

The identical goes for the downward revision of 258,000 jobs within the earlier two months.

That's extremely frequent. It occurred throughout the Biden administration, in a single case a downward revision of an earlier jobs estimate. It’s a normal adjustment made as soon as extra info has turn into out there.

However the financial system is what it's. Dumping the Biden appointee doesn’t change that.

President Donald Trump boards Air Drive One on August 1, 2025 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photographs)

Perhaps there’s an issue with the fixed revisions, however that’s been happening for years. McEntarfer ought to have put out a extra detailed assertion.

There was an avalanche of media criticism for the president undermining confidence within the reliability of the numbers all of us depend upon.

Kevin O’Leary, the "Shark Tank" investor, advised CNN: "I didn't agree on whacking the commissioner. I don’t like that. Whacking statisticians is unnecessary in any respect. You don’t shoot the messenger."

Trump’s BLS chief within the first time period, Invoice Seaside, mentioned "the commissioner doesn’t do something to gather the numbers. The commissioner doesn’t see the numbers till Wednesday earlier than they’re revealed. By the point the commissioner sees the numbers, they’re all ready…

"Once I was commissioner, we had a 500,000 job revision throughout President Trump’s first term ," he advised CNN. "And why will we try this? As a result of companies are created or companies exit of enterprise, and we don’t actually know that throughout the course of the yr, till we reconcile towards an actual full rely of all the companies."

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Democrats, after all, are going haywire. Janet Yellen, Biden’s Treasury secretary and Fed chief, mentioned it reeked of a "banana republic."

So as soon as the president names his personal individual, will the markets and the general public trust that future jobs numbers are actual? Or will that appointee cook dinner the books in his favor?

Trump’s case : "Final weeks [sic] Job’s Report was RIGGED, similar to the numbers previous to the Presidential Election had been Rigged. That’s why, in each circumstances, there was huge, file setting revisions, in favor of the Radical Left Democrats. These huge changes had been made to cowl up, and stage out, the FAKE political numbers that had been CONCOCTED so as to make a fantastic Republican Success look much less stellar!!! I'll choose an distinctive substitute."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen talks to reporters throughout a information convention on the Treasury Division on Oct. 22, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs)

Tens of millions of enterprise selections are made based mostly on the roles quantity being a good and affordable estimate, based mostly on Labor’s survey of collaborating corporations.

However let’s pull again and take a look at another current Trump actions.

The Workplace of Particular Counsel is now investigating Jack Smith, who introduced two felony circumstances towards Trump, for violating the Hatch Act. That’s the regulation that bars authorities officers from making blatantly partisan feedback. However it’s often ignored: When Kellyanne Conway was accused of violating the act and really useful for dismissal, Trump simply blew it off.

Ex-CIA director John Brennan and fired FBI chief James Comey are below felony investigation for allegedly politicizing intelligence in 2016.

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Trump has additionally ordered a felony probe of Barack Obama for his actions in 2016 and declared him responsible of "treason."

I’d simply provide a reminder that Trump’s particular counsel within the first time period, John Durham, investigated all this and introduced no expenses towards these males.

I do know that his information have just lately been declassified, however Durham wrote:

"The workplace’s finest evaluation is that the July 25 and July 27 emails that purport to be from Benardo," a person funded by George Soros, "had been finally a composite of a number of emails that had been obtained by means of Russian intelligence hacking of the U.S.-based thinktanks." Durham indicted solely three minor officers.

Particular counsel Jack Smith speaks to members of the media on the US Division of Justice constructing in Washington, DC, on August 1, 2023. (SAUL LOEB/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

Trump is extraordinarily aggressive, after all, whether or not it’s suing the media (profitable $16-million settlements from ABC and CBS); concentrating on Ivy League universities (Columbia agreeing to pay a $200-million penalty); ordering an investigation of first-term cybersecurity official Miles Taylor (higher often called Nameless); ordering federal companies to chop ties with WilmerHale (and saying it was as a result of Robert Mueller labored there), together with defunding NPR and PBS.

Oh, and did I point out that the present president has additionally ordered an investigation of pardons and different actions by Joe Biden, geared toward exhibiting he was too mentally impaired to do the job? The previous president, who's being handled for prostate most cancers, dismissed the concept as "ridiculous."

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All this tasks a picture of power, enabling Trump to drive the information agenda. However it additionally reveals a president preoccupied by previous grievances and decided to settle scores with opponents he believes unfairly focused him.

And that’s why Erika McEntarfer is out of the blue out of a job.

Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX Information Channel's MediaBuzz (Sundays 11 AM-12PM/ET). Primarily based in Washington, D.C., he joined the community in 2013 and repeatedly seems on Particular Report with Bret Baier and The Story with Martha MacCallum amongst different packages.