President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he has fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Biden-appointed Commissioner of Labor Statistics, accusing her of deliberately inflating job growth figures ahead of the 2024 election to aid Vice President Kamala Harris — while downplaying strong economic performance under his current term.

“I was just informed that our country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of victory,” Trump declared on Truth Social.

The president pointed to substantial discrepancies in past jobs reports as proof of politically motivated manipulation, including gross overstatements of employment gains. “This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records — No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers.”

Trump’s decision was decisive: “I have directed my team to fire this Biden political appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,” he stated.

Citing recent data releases that drastically missed expectations, Trump added: “McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative.”

In addition to the Labor Commissioner, Trump also took aim at the Federal Reserve, accusing it of similar election-year meddling.

“The economy is BOOMING under ‘TRUMP’ despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with interest rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting ‘Kamala’ elected – How did that work out?” Trump posted. “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should also be put ‘out to pasture.’ Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Speaking to reporters Friday evening, Trump emphasized that his concerns were longstanding. “I was thinking about it this morning, before the numbers that came out. I said, ‘Who is the person that does these numbers?’ And then they gave me stats about before the election,” he said. “We need people that we can trust.”

Trump has previously called out questionable government statistics. During his 2016 campaign, he warned that the unemployment rate was far higher than the government claimed. In 2024, he again accused the Biden administration of “covering up” economic weakness, pointing to the BLS’s own admission that it overcounted jobs over a 12-month stretch — a fact confirmed by *CNN*.

The Trump administration has praised the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) when its numbers reflected reality. In March 2017, after a strong jobs report, then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the data was no longer “phony.” Most recently, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted on social media that the Trump economy had exceeded expectations in four consecutive jobs reports.

While left-leaning economists predictably expressed outrage over the firing, calling it “deeply worrisome,” those aligned with the administration defended the move as necessary.

Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former Obama adviser, labeled the decision “outrageous” and claimed that “accurate statistics are essential to the economy.” Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics echoed the sentiment, saying the BLS maintains “the highest standard” and warning that any challenge to its reputation is troubling.

But Trump’s Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, strongly supported the president’s decision.

“A recent string of major revisions have come to light and raised concerns about decisions being made by the Biden-appointed Labor Commissioner,” she wrote on X. “I support the President’s decision to replace Biden’s Commissioner and ensure the American People can trust the important and influential data coming from BLS.”

With a booming economy and record-setting gains, the Trump administration is making clear it won’t tolerate politically skewed data — and is taking action to restore accountability and public trust in the nation’s labor statistics.