Donald Trump is facing mounting criticism from within his own party following his decision to dismiss Erika McEntarfer, the head of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, after a weak July jobs report showed just 73,000 new positions, well below expectations.

The report also included downward revisions for the two preceding months, totaling 258,000 fewer jobs, and revealed slowing economic output and consumer spending, deepening concerns over the health of the US economy.

Trump, in a post on social media, claimed without providing proof that the figures had been "RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad," insisting the US economy was "BOOMING" under his leadership.

Data Purge

His defense of the firing has failed to calm the backlash, with Republican senators joining Democrats and statisticians in warning of long-term damage to the credibility of federal data.

"If the president is firing the statistician because he doesn't like the numbers but they are accurate, then that's a problem," Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming told The Guardian. "It's not the statistician's fault if the numbers are accurate and that they're not what the president had hoped for." She added that if the data is flawed, the public deserves transparency, but described McEntarfer's dismissal as "kind of impetuous."

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Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina also took issue with the move. "If she was just fired because the president or whoever decided to fire the director just … because they didn't like the numbers, they ought to grow up."

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky echoed similar concerns, questioning the logic behind removing the BLS chief over unfavorable figures. "We have to look somewhere for objective statistics," he told NBC News. "When the people providing the statistics are fired, it makes it much harder to make judgments that you know, the statistics won't be politicized." Paul added, "you can't really make the numbers different or better by firing the people doing the counting."

Firing Facts First

Though some Republicans had backed Trump's latest economic package, dubbed the "big, beautiful bill", others, including Tillis and Paul, had opposed it. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who had supported the bill after negotiating support for her state, said the real issue was the loss of public confidence in the data. "And when you fire people, then it makes people trust them even less," she said.

William Beach, who led the BLS during Trump's first term, condemned the firing on X, calling it "totally groundless." He warned that the move set a "dangerous precedent" and threatened the agency's mission.

Beach also signed a letter issued by the "Friends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics," which described the decision as an attempt to deflect blame. The group stated that the justification for McEntarfer's removal was "without merit" and would erode the credibility of US economic data.

The letter clarified that the system of job reporting is "decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference" and noted that US statistics are "the gold standard globally." It warned that countries which politicize economic data risk losing public trust in all official statistics and government science.

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Democrats also denounced Trump's actions. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said the move was "the sign of an authoritarian type" and cautioned it would further erode public trust in government data.

Paul Schroeder, who heads the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, described the president's accusations as "very damaging and outrageous." He added: "Not only does it undermine the integrity of federal economic statistics, but it also politicizes data which need to remain independent and trustworthy. This action is a grave error by the administration and one that will have ramifications for years to come."