Washington, D.C. [US], August 4 (ANI): U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Sunday (local time), stated that his administration will announce a new statistician for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) within the next few days. Whoever the President nominates will require confirmation by the Senate, according to CNN.
“We’ll be announcing a new statistician sometime over the next three, four days. We had no confidence—I mean, the numbers were ridiculous, which she announced—but that was just one negative number. All of the numbers seem to be great. In my opinion, it’s just an additional scam,” Trump said before boarding Air Force One in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Earlier on Sunday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett defended Trump’s decision to fire BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, asserting that the President “wants his own people there,” CNN reported.
Last week, a weaker-than-expected jobs report became a point of contention for the administration. The BLS monthly report released on Friday showed the U.S. economy added just 73,000 jobs in July. Additionally, the figures for May and June were revised downward by a combined total of 258,000 jobs.
Following the release of the report, Trump posted on Truth Social that “today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.” He subsequently announced McEntarfer’s dismissal, CNN noted.
Hassett did not offer evidence that the report was inaccurate but cited the revisions as “hard evidence” that the jobs data had been manipulated.
“What we need is a fresh set of eyes over the BLS,” Hassett said.
He further stated that if he were running the BLS and had “the biggest downward revision in 50 years, I would have a really, really detailed report explaining why it happened.” He alleged, without presenting proof, that there are “partisan patterns” in the jobless data and added, “Data can’t be propaganda,” CNN reported. (ANI)
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