Erika McEntarfer, head of the bureau of labor statistics, was surprisingly fired by Donald Trump on Friday, according to a post on the Truth Social platform.
The message followed the publication of both fresh and revised job figures for May-June, which showed that fewer new jobs had been created in the country than expected in recent months.
It's simply bad numbers for Trump. The growth in the number of employees that the numbers showed a few months ago has been sharply revised downwards, says Jan Hallenberg, USA expert and professor emeritus of political science at the Defense University.
”Trying to scare”
He believes that Trump fired McEntarfer for opinion-related reasons, but also to set an example for the future.
Trump is trying to say that the numbers are incorrect and that they are produced to put him and the Republicans in a bad light. In this way, he is scaring other bureaucrats, if they do not come with good news, they know what will happen, says Hallenberg.
McEntarfer was nominated by former President Joe Biden and approved by the Senate in January 2024 with the vote count 86-8. Hallenberg emphasizes that the statistics chief is a non-political official, and that it is unclear whether the next statistics chief will be able to influence future job figures in Trump's favor.
It will be interesting to see what happens, if the statistics bureau will have rigged numbers that only show plus, but there are 2,000 employees, so it's not easy to get them to come with untruths, says Hallenberg.
”Politicization of Fed”
On Friday, it was also announced that one of the members of the US Federal Reserve, Adriana Kugler, is leaving prematurely. This means that Trump has the opportunity to nominate a new member who supports the president's view that the key interest rate must be significantly lowered.
Although Kugler's successor will only have one of a total of twelve votes in the decision on the key interest rate, Friday's job figures may mean that more members will vote for an interest rate cut in future votes, and that the successor will thus have a decisive vote, according to Hallenberg.
Trump will not appoint anyone who does not share his views. It will be a further politicization of the Federal Reserve, which is unfortunate, says Hallenberg.
