Trump White House struggles to justify firing of BLS chief

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, without citing specific evidence.

Hassett repeatedly pointed to the revisions in Friday’s employment data to justify Trump’s firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, but did not provide data showing the latest jobs report was “rigged,” as Trump claimed.

“I mean, the revisions are hard evidence,” he said on NBC News, adding that there “have been a bunch of patterns that could make people wonder.”

Revisions are common in jobs report data, as the initial estimate often becomes more precise as additional payroll data becomes available in subsequent months. The data is dependent on surveys of employers, and some businesses may not file their data by the initial reporting deadline.

Trump on Friday fired McEntarfer, accusing her of manipulating the jobs numbers for political purposes after the latest report included downward revisions to job growth data for two previous months.

Hassett argued that the revisions are a “historically important outlier,” saying they raise broader doubts about the data.

He also rejected claims that Trump was “shooting the messenger” for the weaker-than-expected jobs numbers.

Instead, he said, the president “wants his own people there,” suggesting that the data would be “more transparent and more reliable” with a Trump appointee.

“And if there are big changes and big revisions, we expect more big revisions for the jobs data in September, for example, then we want to know why, we want people to explain it to us,” he continued.

Hassett did not say whether the White House had asked McEntarfer to explain the reason for the revisions in the data before she was fired.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

McEntarfer’s firing came after the BLS reported weaker-than-expected jobs figures.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 73,000 in July, above the prior month’s 14,000 jobs but below even the meager Dow Jones estimate for a gain of 100,000. June and May totals were revised sharply lower, down by a combined 258,000 from previously announced levels.

Trump has often praised strong jobs reports during periods of growth.

McEntarfer’s ouster drew sharp backlash from economists and others, fearing that such a move could undermine trust in the government’s data in the future.

Former BLS Commissioner William Beach, whom Trump appointed, said the commissioner’s firing was “totally groundless,” which “sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau,” according to a post on X shortly after the firing.

On Sunday, Beach said that the firing is “damaging” and “undermines credibility” of the institution.

“Suppose that they get a new commissioner, and this person, male or female, are just the best people possible, right? And they do a bad number,” he said on CNN.

“Well, everybody’s going to think, well, it’s not as bad as it probably really is, because they’re going to suspect political influence.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon echoed Beach’s criticism.

Schumer said Trump was acting like a “bad leader” and a dictator.

“Well, Donald Trump, firing her isn’t going to relieve the chaos that you created with your ramshackle tariff regime,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Wyden slammed Trump’s firing as “the act of somebody who is soft, weak and afraid to own up to the reality of the damage his chaos is inflicting on our economy.”

“Bottom line, Trump wants to cook the books,” Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement after Trump fired McEntarfer.

Data collection in doubt

While many criticized the controversial firing of the BLS commissioner, others questioned whether the methods long used to compile the jobs data should be revisited.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, for instance, said that the government uses surveys to inform the jobs data that “frankly just aren’t that effective anymore.”

“They can get this data, I think, other ways, and I think that’s where the focus ought to be,” he said Sunday on CBS News.

“How do we get the data and be more resilient and more predictable and more understandable?” he continued.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Friday that “we have to look somewhere for objective statistics.”

“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 told NBC News, emphasizing the need for trusted data.

WATCH: Trump fires BLS chief Dr. Erika McEntarfer after labor data revisions