Key Takeaways:
- National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett backed Trump’s decision to fire the BLS Commissioner over major job data revisions, calling them the largest in 50 years.
- Hassett raised concerns about “partisan patterns” in the timing of revisions, particularly those that flattered Biden’s record before being quietly corrected.
- Despite economic growth and strong GDP numbers, Hassett argued the BLS data has become too unreliable to trust, and a leadership change is needed to restore credibility.
The numbers don’t lie—unless they do. That’s the concern National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett raised on Fox News Sunday as he defended President Trump’s firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. The reason? A disturbing trend of politically convenient “mistakes” in the nation’s job data.
Citing a record-breaking revision that quietly slashed 818,000 jobs from Biden-era reports, Hassett called it “the biggest data revision in 50 years.” He added, “There was another massive revision… almost a million jobs down… but we didn’t get the downward revision until after Joe Biden had dropped out.”
Hassett didn’t mince words about the BLS’s black-box methods: “The data have become very unreliable… we need a fresh set of eyes at the BLS.” Despite McEntarfer’s bipartisan confirmation, Trump claimed she “faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory.”
The numbers keep getting worse: July’s jobs report fell short, and May and June were revised down by a combined 258,000 jobs. Yet GDP grew at a strong 3.0% in Q2—proof, Hassett argued, that Trump’s economic fundamentals remain strong.
Bottom line: when job data starts looking more like campaign strategy than economic reality, it’s time to clean house.