Trump Fires Biden-Appointed BLS Head After Jobs Data

President Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the Biden-appointed head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), after a July jobs report showed only 73,000 jobs added and significant downward revisions to prior months, prompting unsupported allegations from Trump of politically motivated data manipulation. The firing has intensified concerns about the politicization and integrity of federal economic data, with economists, analysts, Republican senators, and former BLS officials criticizing the move as undermining trust in key statistical agencies. Some GOP lawmakers cautioned that removing a statistician for delivering unfavorable but accurate data is problematic, while experts stressed McEntarfer's integrity and lack of evidence for bias. The weak jobs data and Trump's tariff policies rattled financial markets, leading the S&P 500 to drop 1.6%, its biggest decline in over two months. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer supported the firing, while former BLS commissioner William Beech and others condemned it as a dangerous precedent. The incident has heightened worries about U.S. economic data quality and raised questions about the labor market's trajectory.