• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flipboard
• Comments
• Print
• Email

Steve Moore warns job creation numbers are ‘increasingly unreliable’ amid weak July report

Former Trump economic advisor Steve Moore discusses the July jobs report and President Donald Trump’s efforts to make a new trade deal with Canada on ‘Fox News Live.’

Donald Trump didn't like the slight gain in jobs that the government reported for July. So he fired the commissioner for labor statistics, who nobody had heard of until 10 minutes ago. 

Problem solved?

Well, not exactly. 

Erika McEntarfer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, didn’t unilaterally make the decision that the economy added just 73,000 jobs in July. That figure was produced by hundreds of Labor Department analysts, following established rules, before it reached her level. 

TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER FIRES BACK AT NBC HOST OVER 'SHOOTING THE MESSENGER' CLAIM ABOUT BLS FIRING

For the president to claim, without proof, that this was "rigged"—to make him, and Republicans look bad–doesn’t change the underlying reality. The number was disappointing. That hasn’t changed. 

The same goes for the downward revision of 258,000 jobs in the previous two months. 

That is incredibly common. It happened during the Biden administration, in one case a downward revision of an earlier jobs estimate. It’s a standard adjustment made once more information has become available. 

But the economy is what it is. Dumping the Biden appointee doesn’t change that. 

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 1, 2025 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Maybe there’s a problem with the constant revisions, but that’s been going on for years. McEntarfer should have put out a more detailed statement.

There has been an avalanche of media criticism for the president undermining confidence in the reliability of the numbers we all depend on. 

Kevin O’Leary, the "Shark Tank" investor, told CNN: "I did not agree on whacking the commissioner. I don’t like that. Whacking statisticians makes no sense whatsoever. You don’t shoot the messenger."

Trump’s BLS chief in the first term, Bill Beach, said "the commissioner doesn’t do anything to collect the numbers. The commissioner doesn’t see the numbers until Wednesday before they’re published. By the time the commissioner sees the numbers, they’re all prepared…

"When I was commissioner, we had a 500,000 job revision during President Trump’s first term," he told CNN. "And why do we do that? Because firms are created or firms go out of business, and we don’t really know that during the course of the year, until we reconcile against a real full count of all the businesses."

TRUMP VOWS TO REPLACE LABOR STATISTICS CHIEF WITH SOMEONE 'COMPETENT AND QUALIFIED'

Democrats, of course, are going haywire. Janet Yellen, Biden’s Treasury secretary and Fed chief, said it reeked of a "banana republic."

So once the president names his own person, will the markets and the public have confidence that future jobs numbers are real? Or will that appointee cook the books in his favor?

Trump’s case: "Last weeks [sic] Job’s Report was RIGGED, just like the numbers prior to the Presidential Election were Rigged. That’s why, in both cases, there was massive, record setting revisions, in favor of the Radical Left Democrats. Those big adjustments were made to cover up, and level out, the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!! I will pick an exceptional replacement."  

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen talks to reporters during a news conference at the Treasury Department on Oct. 22, 2024 in Washington, D.C.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Millions of business decisions are made based on the jobs number being a fair and reasonable estimate, based on Labor’s survey of participating companies.

But let’s pull back and look at some other recent Trump actions.

The Office of Special Counsel is now investigating Jack Smith, who brought two criminal cases against Trump, for violating the Hatch Act. That’s the law that bars government officials from making blatantly partisan comments. But it’s usually ignored: When Kellyanne Conway was accused of violating the act and recommended for dismissal, Trump just blew it off.

Ex-CIA director John Brennan and fired FBI chief James Comey are under criminal investigation for allegedly politicizing intelligence in 2016.

DOJ CRIMINALLY INVESTIGATING FORMER OBAMA OFFICIALS FOR HANDLING OF RUSSIA PROBE

Trump has also ordered a criminal probe of Barack Obama for his actions in 2016 and declared him guilty of "treason."

I’d just offer a reminder that Trump’s special counsel in the first term, John Durham, investigated all this and brought no charges against these men.

I know that his files have recently been declassified, but Durham wrote: 

"The office’s best assessment is that the July 25 and July 27 emails that purport to be from Benardo," a man funded by George Soros, "were ultimately a composite of several emails that were obtained through Russian intelligence hacking of the U.S.-based thinktanks." Durham indicted only three minor officials.

Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to members of the media at the US Department of Justice building in Washington, DC, on August 1, 2023.  (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump is extremely aggressive, of course, whether it’s suing the media (winning $16-million settlements from ABC and CBS); targeting Ivy League universities (Columbia agreeing to pay a $200-million penalty); ordering an investigation of first-term cybersecurity official Miles Taylor (better known as Anonymous); ordering federal agencies to cut ties with WilmerHale (and saying it was because Robert Mueller worked there), along with defunding NPR and PBS.

Oh, and did I mention that the current president has also ordered an investigation of pardons and other actions by Joe Biden, aimed at showing he was too mentally impaired to do the job? The former president, who is being treated for prostate cancer, dismissed the idea as "ridiculous."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

All this projects an image of strength, enabling Trump to drive the news agenda. But it also reveals a president preoccupied by past grievances and determined to settle scores with opponents he believes unfairly targeted him.

And that’s why Erika McEntarfer is suddenly out of a job.

• ·2023年全国新高考Ⅰ卷高考英语作文题目
• ·切尔西vs巴黎！AI精选10连红+长风8连红出击世俱杯
• ·大巴黎vs皇马！伯温10连红、AI精选9连红预测世俱杯
• ·世俱杯夺冠赔率：巴黎1赔2.37领跑 皇马紧追
• ·高温+暴雨+强对流三预警齐发 这些区域需防范8级以上雷暴大风
• ·[新浪彩票]足彩第25098期大势：迈阿密国际不败
• ·大巴黎vs皇马！伯温10连红、AI精选9连红预测世俱杯
• ·专家预测双色球今年揽58注头奖 莫晨风擒2等98万
• ·《生化危机9》第一人称与第三人称对比视频 喜欢哪个？
• ·双色球头奖4注740万分落2地 云南爆2220万大奖
• ·白政恺居亚巡国际系列赛摩洛哥站第三 落后2杆争冠
• ·苏格兰公开赛纳普并列领先 李昊桐74杆吴阿顺76杆
• ·我的小小世界 My Little World
• ·亚马尔点燃上海夏天 最强“小孩哥”的快乐很简单
• ·1赔3以上比赛多达6场 足彩任九开8746注919元
• ·一波三折！中国U16男足3比4不敌韩国 和平杯排名第三