President Trump fires labor statistics boss

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – President Donald Trump is standing by a high-profile firing, removing the head of the federal agency that reports monthly jobs numbers. This comes after new data showed that hiring in July slowed significantly.

President Trump says the firing was about leadership and accountability, but critics worry it sets a dangerous precedent, especially when it comes to the independence of government data.

“We’ll be announcing a new statistician sometime over the next 3, 4 days. We had no confidence,” said Trump.

The firing comes just after the latest report showed hiring slowed dramatically in July and job gains from earlier this summer were revised down by tens of thousands.

The president’s allies on Capitol Hill support the move.

“I think that president has been very big about removing people from the Biden administration, and had challenges with their numbers, of course last year.,” said Rep, Mike Haridopolos (R-Fla.).

Democrats see it differently, raising concerns about political influence over a government agency. 

“I think an investigation is certainly in order,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).

California Senator Alex Padilla calls it a dangerous overreach by the president. 

“He’s trying to weaponize the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That tells you a lot about their insecurities about the economy,” said Padilla.

With another jobs report just weeks away, questions remain about whether this shake-up will boost confidence or hurt it.

An interim deputy is expected to oversee the august report, but transparency groups are calling for outside oversight to guarantee integrity.