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 Trump ordered the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner after her office released a trove of negative jobs data.