Trump’s decision to fire BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer unfolded after the agency released July jobs numbers and issued large revisions for May and June, lowering payroll gains by a combined 258,000 in those two months—the biggest such revision since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic during spring 2020.

President Donald Trump on Friday said he plans to fire the head of the government agency that produces the monthly jobs report, claiming without evidence that she is biased against him. In a tweet, Trump said he instructed his political team to remove Erika McEntarfer as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.