Trump admin hits Biden economy, BLS, Powell after jobs data

The White House used revised jobs data released Tuesday as fodder to criticize three frequent targets of President Donald Trump: the Bureau of Labor Statistics, former President Joe Biden and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

“Today, the BLS released the largest downward revision on record proving that President Trump was right: Biden’s economy was a disaster and the BLS is broken,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“This is exactly why we need new leadership to restore trust and confidence in the BLS’s data on behalf of the financial markets, businesses, policymakers, and families that rely on this data to make major decisions,” she said.

“Much like the BLS has failed the American people, so has Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell – who has officially run out of excuses and must cut the rates now.”

The Labor Department report showed that the U.S. economy created fewer jobs than had been initially reported in the year that began in March 2024.

Annual revisions to nonfarm payrolls data for the year showed a reduction of 911,000 from initial estimates, according to the initial report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The BLS has been the target of a coordinated campaign to undermine faith its data, orchestrated by the White House.

Trump abruptly fired Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer in August, just hours after BLS released initial employment data for July that included two months’ of downward revisions to job growth data from earlier in the year.

Trump argued that those revisions — which are common in jobs reports — showed that the BLS was manipulating employment data for political purposes. His firing of McEntarfer drew sharp rebuke from economists and some lawmakers.

Powell was nominated by Trump in 2017 to serve as chair of the central bank.

But ever since the start of Trump’s second term, the chairman has become a frequent target of the White House, as the president’s frustration has grown over Powell’s refusal to lower interest rates.

In August, however, Powell said that uncertainty in the U.S. economy may warrant interest rate cuts later this month.