Trump’s economic advisers have defended the firing of U.S. Labor Statistics Commissioner Erica Mantelfer elsewhere on television.
Trump fires the head of labor statistics over weak job reports
President Trump fired the Labor Director after a weak employment report in July, calling the numbers “fake” and claiming that the report was equipped.
WASHINGTON – Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has called for President Donald Trump to fire “irresponsible” as Director of Labor Statistics, comparing his response to a weaker number of jobs than planned to “awful child behavior.”
Trump’s allies appeared on ABC News and said the fire was a classic Trump.
“If you receive news that he doesn’t like, he needs to be held responsible because he is not responsible for himself. This is the behavior of a displeased child. You give me bad news and I’ll fire the messenger.”
Trump ordered the removal of U.S. Labor Statistics Commissioner Erica Mantelfer on August 1 after the Labor Bureau said the US economy added 73,000 jobs in July. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised the total with a total of 258,000 jobs in May and June.
The president has denounced Mentarfer, a 20-year federal veteran appointed by Biden for politically driven data manipulation. He provided no evidence of the charges.
Trump said she will replace her with “more capable and qualified” in the true social post that she announces her layoffs. “These important figures must be fair and accurate. They cannot be manipulated for political purposes.”
He wrote in another post:
Christie summoned eight years as governor of New Jersey, and in his experience he said, “It would be almost impossible for anyone to try to incorporate these numbers.”
“All she’s doing is a conduit of information,” he said. “So, he is irresponsible from a factual standpoint, but also shows how he manages it.”
The White House defends the firing of Director of Labor Statistics
Trump’s economic adviser has defended the president’s decision elsewhere on television, and Kevin Hassett, chairman of the National Economic Council, has argued about NBC News that the station needs a “fresh eye.”
“There were a lot of patterns that people could wonder about, and I think the most important thing people know is that data is trustworthy, and that people get to the bottom of why these revisions are so unreliable.
Trump also in a post on August 3rd that Mantelfer did the same thing just before the 2024 presidential election,” insisting that former President Joe Biden’s employment numbers had been inflated and subsequently revised.
“I won the election anyway, she readjusted the numbers down, called it a mistake, and did almost a million people’s jobs. Scam!” he insisted.
Revisions to monthly estimates are common, with the Labor Bureau in December 2024 saying 15,000 jobs were generated in November more than the original estimate. BLS said 7,000 jobs were created in October than expected.
Trump appeared to refer to the BLS announcement made in August 2024, three months before the election. This has resulted in an agency reducing estimates by 818,000 for employment created between April 2023 and March 2024. This was the biggest downgrade in 15 years.
In an interview with CBS News about “Face the Nation,” US trade representative Jamieson Greer, who did not repeat Trump’s claim that the data was “equipped,” but claimed that there was “a major fluctuation in work numbers” in last year’s presidential election.
“And it sounds like the president has real concern,” he said in an interview that he recorded on August 1.
Contribution: Joey Garrison
