US President Donald Trump on Thursday accused the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of deliberately inflating job numbers to favor his predecessor, Joe Biden. He made the allegation while unveiling new figures shortly after firing the commissioner.
In the Oval Office, Trump addressed reporters during what he called a “major” announcement. Beside him stood Stephen Moore, an economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation.
They displayed charts they said showed the “real” jobs data. “This shows that over the last two years of the Biden administration, the BLS overestimated job creation by 1.5 million jobs. Mr. President, that’s a gigantic error,” Moore said. He praised Trump for replacing the BLS chief.
Trump argued the error was no accident. “It might not have been an error, that’s the bad part. I don’t think it’s an error, I think they did it purposely,” he said.
Moore also cited “unpublished census data” showing that in Trump’s first five months of the new term, inflation-adjusted median household income had already risen by $1,174. Trump described the rise as “incredible.”
The BLS often revises its employment data after initial release, with changes going up or down. In early August, it cut its job growth estimates for May and June by 258,000.
The downward revision angered Trump. He dismissed Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who had been appointed in January 2024. “We had no confidence. I mean the numbers were ridiculous,” he told reporters on Sunday.
Trump and Moore have a long political association. During his first term, Trump considred nominating Moore to the Federal Reserve Board. However, he backed down after critics questioned Moore’s qualifications and pointed to past remarks labeled sexist.
