Pete Buttigieg acknowledges 'fairness issues' with trans athletes in women's sports
During an interview with NPR, Buttigieg acknowledged "fairness issues" in the debate.
"Around sports, … I think most reasonable people would recognize that there are serious fairness issues if you just treat this as not mattering when a trans athlete wants to compete in women's sports," Buttigieg said.
The Democrat then agreed that parents who have complained about trans athletes competing against their daughters "have a case." However, Buttigieg also argued that politicians shouldn't be dictating policy to determine whether males can compete in women's and girls sports.
"And that's why I think these decisions should be in the hands of sports leagues and school boards and not politicians … in Washington trying to use this as a political pawn," Buttigieg said.
"Chess is different from weightlifting, and weightlifting is different from volleyball and middle school is different from the Olympics. So, that's exactly why I think that we shouldn't be grandstanding on this as politicians. We should be empowering communities and organizations and schools to make the right decisions."
Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, have advocated for policy changes that would allow trans athletes to compete in women's and girls sports. Biden passed an executive order on his first day in office in January 2021 that said "Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports."
Democrats in Congress also tried to pass the Transgender Bill of Rights and the Equality Act, both of which would have allowed trans athletes to compete in girls and women's sports.
President Donald Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order Feb. 5, and 27 states have passed their own laws to ensure similar restrictions.
Buttigieg joins several other prominent Democrats and media pundits who have spoken out against allowing males to compete with females, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom; Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; and HBO host Bill Maher.
An April report by The New York Times claims that Biden did not agree with trans athletes participating in women's and girls sports.
"According to a number of former Biden-administration officials, there remained a simmering debate inside the administration about whether those Title IX protections should extend to sports," the Times reported,. "One side …maintained that there was no legal difference between letting trans students use bathrooms that align with their gender identity and letting trans student athletes play on sports teams that align with their gender identity."
However, Biden was "on the other side … who believed that the competitive, zero-sum nature of sports made them different from bathrooms — that some transgender athletes would enjoy unfair physical advantages over women. Most important, one of the officials holding this view was Biden himself."
A New York Times/Ipsos survey found the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don't think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women's sports.
"Thinking about transgender female athletes — meaning athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female — do you think they should or should not be allowed to compete in women's sports?" the survey asked.
Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women's sports.
Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
Other data suggests the issue affected the outcome of the 2024 election.
A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America (CWA) legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of "Donald Trump's opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls' and women's sports and of transgender boys and men using girls' and women's bathrooms" as important to them.
And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was "very important."
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USA Today
4 minutes ago
- USA Today
Is the economy hot or not?
Good morning!🙋🏼♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert. The dreaded gym class mile run is back. Economy = weak labor market + tariff uncertainty Employers in the U.S. added a disappointing 73,000 jobs (well below the expected 102,000) in July as payroll growth slowed amid President Donald Trump's sweeping import tariffs, intensified immigration crackdown and massive federal layoffs. This was no blip: The poor showing likely wasn't an outlier that will be followed by a resumption of healthy job gains in the months ahead, economists told USA TODAY. More concerning, however, were downward revisions to April and May's numbers, suggesting the labor market may be weaker than previously thought. 💵 What the Trump administration means for your wallet: Sign up for USA TODAY's Daily Money newsletter for more tips and analysis. Texas Democrats seek to block redistricting vote by leaving state Democratic lawmakers in Texas said Sunday they were leaving the state to deny Republicans the quorum needed to redraw the state's 38 congressional districts, a move sought to protect the Republicans' narrow U.S. House majority in next year's midterm elections. President Trump has championed the redistricting plan, telling reporters he expects the effort to yield as many as five additional House Republicans. Republicans hold a narrow 220-212 majority in the House of Representatives, with three Democratic-held seats vacant after members' deaths. In a video shot in front of an airport, Democratic Representative James Talarico said the redistricting amounted to "rigging" the 2026 elections. More news to know now What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here. ICE is recruiting agents with incentives Dangling bonuses of up to $50,000, federal officials are launching a massive recruitment campaign to hire more than 14,000 immigration agents, attorneys and other workers to help execute President Trump's border crackdown. The president is newly flush with billions in funding and wants to deport 1 million people a year with the help of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Even before the new hires take their posts, the dramatic expansion of public ICE operations has upset communities. And the aggressive recruitment efforts have also angered local sheriffs who worry that deputies in already understaffed offices will be lured away by the big bonuses and higher pay. Will Rural America give up on Trump? ~ Matt Hildreth, Executive Director of Hildreth's group is already operating in congressional battleground districts in Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania, with a focus on getting people to talk about Medicaid. Today's talkers Winners and losers from the U.S. track and field championships Melissa Jefferson-Wooden accomplished the sprint double, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was golden in the 400 and Noah Lyles was braggadocious as he won another 200 national title. On the field, Valarie Allman continued her reign over the discus and Tara Davis-Woodhall leaped to the top mark in the world in the long jump. The U.S. track and field championships served as the qualifying stage for next month's world championships in Tokyo, Japan. USA TODAY Sports was on the sidelines at Hayward Field for all the action. Photo of the day: You did that, Trinity! The NWSL saw the return of one of its stars in a big way Sunday, as the Washington Spirit's Trinity Rodman struck a game-winning goal against the Portland Thorns in her first match since April 12. Rodman, who battled back from a nagging back injury, scored in the second minute of second half stoppage time, catching a ball mid-bounce and firing it over keeper Mackenzie Arnold for the game-winner. Rodman missed the game as much as we missed her. Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@
The Hill
4 minutes ago
- The Hill
Redistricting battle heats up amid Texas showdown
In today's issue: ▪ How will redistricting affect 2026? ▪ Trump defends firing of labor official ▪ RFK Jr. targets childhood vaccine program ▪ Netanyahu, Putin provide foreign policy headaches Democrats are escalating their battle against Republicans' push to redraw political maps and give themselves a lift ahead of the 2026 midterms. In Texas, Democratic legislators on Sunday took the dramatic step of leaving the state in a bid to stop their GOP colleagues from advancing new congressional maps. The redrawn House districts would give the GOP five more pickup opportunities ahead of 2026, aiding their efforts to hold on to their slim House majority next year. Democrats blasted what they called a 'corrupt' special session in Texas as they accused Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and President Trump of seeking to 'rig' the midterms. The map was set to be considered by the entire state House as soon as this week after a panel advanced a draft over the weekend, despite protests from Democrats that it would suppress minority voters' voices. In a hearing, GOP legislators made explicit their efforts to redraw the map to advantage Republican candidates, The Texas Tribune reported. 'Different from everyone else, I'm telling you, I'm not beating around the bush,' state Rep. Todd Hunter (R) said about the goal of the map. 'We have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance.' Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin on Sunday praised the Texas legislators who left the state for 'standing up and showing real leadership.' 'And, after this fight is done, we're coming full force for the Republicans' House majority,' he said. The Texas Democrats traveled to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts to deny Republicans the minimum number of present lawmakers necessary to conduct business. They employed a similar tactic the last time the GOP pursued midcycle redistricting in 2003, and held another walkout in 2021. Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D), who days earlier called such a move a 'last resort,' joined the walkout Sunday, saying it was 'time to fight back.' 'Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he'll have to come through us,' Talarico said in a post online. Abbott informed the lawmakers late Sunday that he would have them fined and attempt to have them removed from office if they do not return to Austin to pass the new maps. 'Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,' Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for Senate, posted on X. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said at a press conference Sunday night that the Texas state lawmakers who fled to his state will be protected. 'They're here in Illinois. We're going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that — 'cause we know they're doing the right thing, we know that they're following the law,' Pritzker said. The fight threatens to set off a redistricting war across the country as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the House in 2026. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is considering redrawing his state's maps, and Pritzker, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) have also left the door open to such a move. Meanwhile, Florida Republicans are increasingly pushing to redraw the Sunshine State's congressional map. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said last week he is 'very seriously' looking at making the ask of the state Legislature, arguing the 2020 census is flawed. Redistricting typically takes place every decade, with data from the decennial census. Republicans, well aware historical precedent is against the party in power during midterms, are eager to use the August recess to work to sell Trump's now-signed 'Big Beautiful Bill' to voters. The Senate over the weekend joined the House on break, and both chambers won't reconvene until early September. The walkout is drawing more attention to the red-state Democrats' redistricting fight, but the party faces limited options, and newly imposed fines and the threat of arrest also hang over those fleeing the state, The Hill's Julia Mueller reports. 'Democrats don't have many arrows left in their quiver. There simply aren't a lot of things they can do to be able to challenge these maps in the near term,' said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. If the maps do get approved, 'they're going to have to just fight it out on the ground and in the air' during the midterms, he said. 'It's going to shift from being a legal battle to being an electoral battle.' As they look to keep up with the GOP's push to redraw House lines, some Democrats are suggesting the party go around redistricting commissions the party has long championed. ▪ The Texas Tribune: Texas's proposed congressional map dismantles districts flagged by the Justice Department, which said four districts unconstitutionally combined Black and Hispanic voters. If the proposed map passes, two will still be multiracial. Blue states like California would likely need to change their laws for Democrats to undertake redistricting efforts similar to the GOP. Eric Holder, chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, called Texas's plan 'an authoritarian move' by the White House. Holder, attorney general under former President Obama, for years led the charge among Democrats to eliminate gerrymandering. But Holder said Sunday on ABC News's 'This Week' that Democrats need to 'do things that perhaps in the past I would not have supported.' Martin, asked on NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday' about Democrats' prospects, said he views the redistricting effort as unconstitutional but said Democrats are ready to play what he called the Republicans' game. 'The reality is what we've seen already is a craven power grab, an unconstitutional power grab, in my mind,' Martin said. 'The Constitution says very clearly that we have a decennial census. We draw the lines after that. The state legislatures are allowed to do that, but it does not give them the power to essentially redraw the lines whenever the hell they want to do it. And what Texas is doing right now is a craven power grab.' 3 Things to Know Today Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) visited Jerusalem on Sunday after postponing an Israel trip earlier this year. Johnson said it was a 'moving time for us to be here' in a video posted online. Rep. Nancy Mace (R) is running for governor of South Carolina. She's released a launch video and is set to make a formal announcement today at The Citadel, her alma mater. Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley will take on Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) next year, adding a high-profile GOP name to one of the midterms' most consequential contests. Leading the Day BLS BLOWBACK: Trump and White House officials spent the weekend defending his decision to oust the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after a disappointing jobs report last week. 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And I think that markets might be as much unsettled by the fact that the data are so noisy,' he added on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'Even last year during the campaign, there were enormous swings in the jobs numbers, and so sounds to me like the president has real concerns. You know, not just based on today's, but everything we saw last year,' U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on CBS. The latest BLS report suggested the economy and labor market are much weaker than previously thought — casting a dark cloud over the massive tariff overhaul that Trump has spent months promoting. 'Reliable economic data is a key strength of the US economy,' Harvard economist Jason Furman, who chaired Obama's White House Council of Economic Advisers, wrote online. 'I don't think Trump will be able to fake the data given the procedures. But there is now a risk, plus an awful appearance.' McEntarfer,a Biden nominee who the GOP-led Senate confirmed in a 86-8 vote last year, said Sunday that she still regards the opportunity to hold the position for the past several months as an 'honor.' 'It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy,' she said on the social media platform Bluesky. 'It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.' RAISING ALARM: Economist Justin Wolfers called the BLS chief's ouster 'an authoritarian four alarm fire,' noting the commissioner is ' the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality.' 'It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy,' wrote Wolfers, an economics professor at the University of Michigan. Larry Summers, who served as Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, compared Trump's actions to former President Nixon 's administration before Nixon resigned in 1974. 'This is way beyond anything that Richard Nixon ever did,' Summers said in an interview on ABC's 'This Week.' 'I'm surprised that other officials have not responded by resigning themselves as took place when Richard Nixon fired people lawlessly.' Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said Sunday he thinks an investigation into Trump's BLS move 'is certainly in order.' 'That tells you a lot about their insecurity about the economy and the state of economic affairs in America because everything that they're claiming to be true is not true,' he said on 'Meet the Press.' ▪ The Washington Post: Trump's decision to fire the official responsible for compiling the nation's jobs statistics drew condemnation from economic experts who served in Republican and Democratic administrations. ▪ The New York Times: Trump's tariffs have started to generate a significant amount of money for the federal government — a new source of revenue that American policymakers may start to rely on. ▪ The Hill: Trump's plans for a $200 million White House ballroom is angering critics. GOP SET TO GO 'NUCLEAR': Senators left Washington for their August recess after a push for a deal on nominations collapsed Saturday. When they return next month, Republicans facing a Democratic blockade are intent on moving forward with a rules change to limit the length of time spent on individual nominees to more quickly confirm Trump's picks. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) were unable to seal the deal on a package that would have allowed roughly two dozen nominees to be approved before the monthlong break. In exchange for allowing the group of nominees to be approved, Schumer had been pushing for billions of dollars of restored funding in foreign aid and for the National Institutes of Health. Trump, however, made clear that he would not throw his weight behind that agreement, referring to Democrats as 'extortionists' and praising congressional GOP leadership. Senate Republicans are expected to go 'nuclear' on nominees once they reconvene in September by moving to change the rules with 51 votes needed. 'Donald Trump didn't get his way,' Schumer said at a press conference Saturday night. 'Again, this shows us. He bullied us, he cajoled us, he called us names and he went home with nothing.' EPSTEIN LATEST: Republican lawmakers are cautioning Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) to be skeptical about a potential pardon or commutation for Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years behind bars for sex trafficking minors. Maxwell was recently relocated from a federal prison in Florida to a lower-security site in Texas, after two days of meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the DOJ's No. 2 official. Her attorneys are seeking clemency from Trump in exchange for details she may offer about Epstein's crimes and other people involved. But GOP lawmakers argue that pardoning Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, would be unseemly. 'It's ridiculous that he would consider shortening a sentence for somebody who aided and abetted sexual trafficking as she did,' said a Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on the sensitive topic. 'She's trafficking underage children. I can't imagine anything she could say could nullify her heinous crimes.' ▪ The Hill: Trump railed against Charlamagne tha God on Sunday after the radio host predicted the Epstein saga would pave the way for traditional Republicans to take back the GOP from the MAGA base. ▪ The Hill: Trump weighed in on actor Sydney Sweeney 's controversial American Eagle ad, saying if she's a Republican 'I think her ad is fantastic.' Where and When Trump will have lunch with Vice President Vance at 12:30 p.m. The House and Senate are on recess until Sept. 2. Morning Report's Alexis Simendinger will return next week. Zoom In VACCINES: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is targeting the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a little-known but crucial initiative that underpins all childhood vaccinations. Kennedy took to social media and conservative activist Charlie Kirk 's show last week to rail against the program and pledge significant changes. Attorneys and other experts say Kennedy is right that the program, which was created in 1986 in order to give quick payouts to families who can prove a child was injured from a vaccine, is badly in need of modernization. 'There's a lot of low-hanging fruit that [Kennedy] can act on that would immediately alter the course of the vaccine program for the better,' said David Carney, a vaccine injury attorney in Philadelphia and president of the Vaccine Injured Petitioners Bar Association. But they fear Kennedy will tear it down entirely, at the risk of driving drugmakers from the market and threatening access to childhood shots. ▪ CNN: COVID-19 vaccine policy changes raise questions and concerns for U.S. adults as summer wave ramps up. ▪ The New York Times: Why Republicans think that insurance should be tied to employment — and that it's not essential to have at all. ▪ The Washington Post: Despite Trump's campaign pledge to help parents struggling to conceive, the White House has no plan to mandate insurance coverage of IVF care. FITNESS: Health experts and school leaders are thrilled with Trump's revival of the Presidential Fitness Test, but they are hoping for substantial revisions to the program, which was first deployed nearly 60 years ago. Advocates say the test, which hasn't been used since 2012, will need a makeover. Kayce Solari Williams, past president of the American School Health Association and a professor at Purdue University, hopes the test will switch from the old standard to really considering 'overall health and performance' and linking expectations to certain age groups. Williams stressed she has to see 'what the format' and 'requirements' will be as we 'know more about taking better care of the body and doing some prevention, along with strengthening and increasing endurance and flexibility' than we did in the past. ▪ NBC News: The Trump administration is launching a new program that will allow Americans to share personal health data and medical records across health systems and apps run by private tech companies. Elsewhere FOREIGN POLICY: Two key foreign leaders — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — have become headaches for Trump. The president is irked by Putin's refusal to do more to end the war in Ukraine, while imagery of starvation in Gaza is ramping up global criticism of Netanyahu, with whom Trump has long had a volatile relationship. In The Memo, The Hill's Niall Stanage writes that each of them has complicated the political calculus for Trump on the world stage, owing not only to the suffering they have imposed on Ukrainians and Palestinians, respectively, but also to their reluctance to change course. RUSSIA: Trump on Sunday confirmed two nuclear submarines have been positioned at an unspecific region near Russia in response to 'highly provocative statements' from Moscow. The move comes as the president said he was imposing an Aug. 8 deadline for a ceasefire, which Moscow has reacted to with a shoulder shrug. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 's top adviser urged the U.S. to 'strangle' Russia's economy by imposing secondary sanctions on Moscow's trading partners, as the White House's push for a ceasefire appears to languish. Republican senators left Washington over the weekend without advancing a major sanctions bill against Russia, giving Trump sole discretion over whether to follow through on his threats against Putin. While Senate Ukraine hawks wanted to see their sanctions bill pass before the break, they ultimately left the decision in Trump's hands. 'I think he's going to be very careful about what he does,' Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said when asked by The Hill if Trump can be trusted to impose costs on Putin. 'But I think he is clearly disappointed in Putin and I think he is now coming around to recognizing that many of us were right.' ▪ The New York Times: Ukrainian authorities arrested a number of officials on suspicion of corruption in relation to what they called a 'large scale' bribery scheme involving military procurement. ▪ The Washington Post: Long before Russia's 2022 invasion, war simmered in eastern Ukraine and these three families found a way to survive at home — until Moscow decided to seize Donbas for good. ISRAEL: With peace talks between Israel and Hamas at an impasse, U.S. and Israeli officials appear to be changing their tone by signaling that they will push for a comprehensive deal to end the war in Gaza, rather than a temporary ceasefire. But the two sides remain far apart, and analysts said this new approach would also face steep challenges. 'President Trump now believes that everybody ought to come home at once — no piecemeal deals. That doesn't work,' special envoy Steve Witkoff told hostage family members in Tel Aviv. 'Now we have to get all the 20 [live hostages] at the same time… we think that we have to shift this negotiation to all or nothing so that everybody comes home. We think it is going to be successful and we have a plan around it.' The shift comes as the Israeli government faces increased domestic pressure to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Israeli government faces mounting international criticism over the mass hunger that has spread through Gaza's population of about 2 million people, following Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid delivery. ▪ BBC: Some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, wrote to Trump to pressure Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza. ▪ Reuters: Hamas says it will allow aid for hostages if Israel halts airstrikes and opens permanent humanitarian corridors. The winds are also shifting in congressional attitudes toward Israel. While U.S. support for its closest Middle Eastern ally has historically galvanized both parties, that backing has eroded on Capitol Hill as Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza has dragged on and the Palestinian casualties have soared. The pushback is surfacing in different forms, from votes to block U.S. weapons sales and resolutions to recognize a Palestinian state, to accusations of genocide and other statements of public condemnation. Unlike debates past, some of the harshest rebukes are coming from conservative Republicans who have traditionally been stalwart defenders of Israel's military exploits. ▪ NBC News: How much aid has made it into Gaza since Israel said it was easing restrictions? ▪ The Washington Post: Israel's support for clans in Gaza puts tribal strongman in spotlight. Opinion Why Trump's meddling in the Bureau of Labor Statistics matters, by George A. Akerlof, guest essayist, The New York Times. How foreign policy could crash Republican midterm prospects, by Mark Weisbrot and Justin Talbot Zorn, opinion contributors, The Hill. The Closer And finally … 🔭 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched Phoenix, an uncrewed space probe, 18 years ago today. It touched down on the surface of Mars on May 25, 2008 — becoming the first successful NASA Mars landing since the Viking 2 mission 32 years earlier. According to NASA's mission summary, 'The Mars Phoenix lander was designed to uncover the mysteries of the Martian arctic, studying the history of water and searching for complex organic molecules.'
Newsweek
6 minutes ago
- Newsweek
White House Says Terrible Jobs Data 'Must Be a Typo'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. White House officials are rushing to defend President Donald Trump's decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), arguing that the fact-finding agency's revisions to recent jobs numbers were too staggering to be credible. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, described the revisions—which showed 258,000 fewer jobs created in May and June than previously reported—as "hard evidence" of statistical tampering by the BLS. "I've been looking at [jobs data] for 40 years. And I'm like, 'It must be a typo,'" Hassett said, during a Sunday appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. Newsweek has reached out to the BLS via email for comment. Why It Matters Trump's firing of Erika McEntarfer, a Joe Biden appointee who had led the BLS since early 2024, has sparked broad criticism from Democrats and Republicans, with many warning that this sets a dangerous precedent for political influence over such statistical work, and undermines the trustworthiness of the agency. What To Know On Friday, the BLS released its report on non-farm payroll employment for July, showing that only 73,000 jobs were added in the month, well below the 110,000 that had been forecast. This, and the revisions to May and June's data—which the agency said resulted from subsequent reports from businesses and government agencies—prompted outrage from the president. "We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY," Trump posted to Truth Social. "She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes." In a later post, Trump said without evidence that the figures had been "RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad." Hassett said Trump's decision was justified, based on "massive revisions" by the agency in recent years. He pointed to the BLS revising reported job growth between April 2023 and March 2024 down by 818,000 jobs in August of last year, following Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race. Hassett went on to say that "we need a fresh set of eyes over the BLS," and that Trump "wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they're more transparent and more reliable." U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CBS News on Sunday that Trump "has real concerns" about the accuracy of the July report and BLS jobs data from last year. "There are always revisions, but sometimes you see these revisions go in really extreme ways," Greer said on Face the Nation. "And it's, you know, the president is the president. He can choose who works in the executive branch." Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, answers questions from the media at the White House on July 30, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, answers questions from the media at the White House on July 30, 2025, in Washington, D.C. John McDonnell/AP Photo McEntarfer reacted to her dismissal in a post to social media platform Bluesky over the weekend, describing her time with the BLS as the "honor of my life." Her predecessor William Beach, appointed by Trump in 2017, described the move as "totally groundless" on X, formerly Twitter, and one that "sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the bureau." Beach later told CNN there was "no way" for McEntarfer to have rigged jobs figures as Trump alleged. "The commissioner doesn't do anything to collect the numbers. The commissioner doesn't see the numbers until Wednesday before they're published," he said. Both Democrats and Republicans have been equally scathing in their reactions. "Trump's firing of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics chief is dangerous and another sign of his anti-democratic tendencies," New Jersey Senator Cory Booker posted to X,. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Trump was attempting to "blame the failure of [his] presidency on a career public servant." "I think it's kind of impetuous to fire the statistician without first knowing whether the numbers are accurate," said Wyoming's Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis. "It's not the statistician's fault if the numbers are accurate and that they're not what the president had hoped for." What People Are Saying Erika McEntarfer, in a Friday post on Bluesky, said: "It has been the honor of my life to serve as commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation." Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told NBC News: "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." Former BLS Commissioner William Beach told CNN: "I don't think there's any grounds at all for this firing. And it really hurts the statistical system. It undermines credibility in BLS." "Suppose that they get a new commissioner…and they do a bad number. 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," he added. American economist and Nobel laureate Roger Myerson told Newsweek: "Firing the professional head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because of bad news in a monthly report is absolutely the antithesis of contributing to economic sciences." "Telling publicly paid statisticians that their careers depend on not releasing bad news is bad for science, and in the long run it will be bad for policymaking also," he added. Friends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a nonpartisan advocacy group which supports the agency's mission, said: "When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science. "BLS operates as a federal statistical agency and is afforded autonomy to ensure the data it releases are as accurate as possible," it added. "To politicize the work of the agency and its workers does a great disservice not only to BLS, but to the entire federal statistical system which this country has relied on for almost 150 years." What Happens Next? Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he would be announcing a replacement for McEntarfer "sometime over the next three, four days."
