PRESIDENT TRUMP ordered the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner Friday following a dismal jobs report.

The Labor Department reported the U.S. economy added only 73,000 jobs in July, below estimates. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2 percent.

The report included a substantial downward adjustment to previous employment data, shaving 258,000 jobs from the prior two reports.

The U.S. added only 19,000 jobs in May compared to an initial report of 144,000, and only 14,000 in June after an initial report of 147,000, BLS said.

The Hill’s Sylvan Lane writes: “While the BLS often revises job figures, the scale of the revisions — and what they said about the economy — stunned experts and investors after a week of relatively solid economic data.”

In a post on Truth Social this afternoon, Trump said he directed his team to fire BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, baselessly accusing her of having “faked the Jobs Numbers” before the 2024 election in order to boost former Vice President Kamala Harris‘s White House bid.

Trump cited revisions during the Biden administration that at the time boosted job numbers before the election.

“No one can be that wrong?” Trump said. “We need accurate Jobs Numbers.”

“She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,” the president continued. “Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”

An administration official later confirmed the firing to The Hill.

McEntarfer was nominated by Biden in 2023 and confirmed by the Senate in early 2024 in a 86-8 vote. Vice President Vance, then serving as an Ohio senator, voted to confirm her. 

Democrats are outraged.

“Instead of helping people get good jobs, Donald Trump just fired the statistician who reported bad jobs data that the wanna-be king doesn’t like,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) posted on X.

The Labor Department report comes two days after the Federal Reserve voted to keep interest rates steady, though two members dissented in calling for lower rates. The jobs report could add pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower rates in September — if not sooner.

Trump reignited his criticism of Powell in the hours before the Labor Department report was released, calling on the central bank board to oust him.

“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, a stubborn MORON, must substantially lower interest rates, NOW. IF HE CONTINUES TO REFUSE, THE BOARD SHOULD ASSUME CONTROL, AND DO WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS HAS TO BE DONE!” Trump posted.

The president ratcheted up his criticism of Powell throughout the day Friday and eventually called for him to be put “out to pasture.”

Stocks fell with the unexpectedly weak jobs data, with the Nasdaq down 2.4 percent in late afternoon trading.

Heather Long, the chief economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union, called the report a “game changer,” with many sectors, including manufacturing, retail and government, losing jobs. The health care sector has accounted for most of the jobs created over the past three months.

“This labor market is in trouble,” Long posted on X. “Healthcare [and] social assistance are pretty much the only sectors hiring. This is NOT healthy.”

“Companies do not want to hire or invest with this much uncertainty about tariffs, inflation, etc.,” she added.

Senior administration officials, including Vance, pointed to findings in the jobs report that native-born Americans have gained jobs under the Trump administration, while many of the job losses are at the expense of foreign-born workers.

“I was told 6 months ago that Americans losing jobs and the foreign-born gaining jobs was an irreversible demographic fact,” Vance posted on X. “Turns out you just need a new president and a new immigration policy.”

Trump once again delayed implementing his tariffs, although this time by only one week.

Trump announced new tariff rates for more than 60 countries, with new rates set to go into effect on Aug. 7.

The new tariffs establish a 10 percent baseline for all imports, with higher levies slapped on many countries, including 35 percent for Canada, 30 percent for South Africa and 25 percent for India.

The White House has so far announced new trade deals with the European Union, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines, among others.

Trump is giving Mexico an additional 90 days for trade talks, while the U.S. and China have agreed to freeze tariffs in place until a longer term deal is reached.

Democrats blasted the tariffs, saying the new jobs report is evidence of the president’s strategy backfiring.

“It is disturbing to say but the chickens are coming home to roost on Donald Trump’s destructive trade war, and the American people are paying price,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.0 said on the Senate floor. “The American people are paying the price. You sow chaos, Donald Trump, you reap chaos. That is what the president is finding out this morning.”

💡Perspectives:

• Very Serious: This jobs report clarifies some things.

• Commonplace: The moral arbitrage driving Wall Street profits.

• The American Prospect: Apple helped China become a tech superpower.

• CNN: Trump used America’s leverage to get what he wanted in trade war.

• Racket: Another major document release.

Read more: 

• Amazon reports solid Q2 results despite tariffs.

• Ford posts first quarterly loss in two years after $800 million tariff hit.

• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, says it will begin “an orderly wind-down of its operations” after seeing its budget cut from GOP-led legislation.

   

• Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was quietly transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a prison in Texas. 

   

• A federal judge ruled against Trump administration plans to end protections from deportation for citizens of Nepal, Nicaragua and Honduras.

©  Mark Schiefelbein, Associated Press

The main super PAC associated with President Trump has raised almost $177 million so far this year and has close to $200 million in the bank, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.

That’s a massive war chest that Trump’s allies will be looking to put to work in the 2026 midterm elections, as Republicans seek to buck history and maintain majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Still, the GOP faces significant headwinds as they set out to defend Trump’s second term agenda.

On Thursday, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) was met with heckles and boos at a town hall event in his district, as he faced tough questions from constituents over the Trump agenda bill, tariffs and immigration.

“President Trump seems to run southeast Wisconsin through you,” one man told Steil at the town hall.

Democrats are out making their own case, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) set to hit the road again next week for the next round of his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which has been a smash hit with liberals.

Sanders has stops planned in North Carolina and West Virginia, where he’ll “focus on how Medicaid cuts will impact rural hospitals and working class families,” according to his communications director Anna Bahr.

The think tank Third Way released suggestions for Democrats on what to focus on during summer recess, saying lawmakers should criticize Republicans for cutting Medicaid and adding to the national debt.

MEANWHILE…

Former Vice President Kamala Harris gave her first interview since losing the 2024 presidential election, telling Stephen Colbert that she’s not running for governor of California because she wants to operate outside of the political system, which she described as “broken.”

Harris dodged when Colbert asked who is the current leader of the Democratic Party.

“I think it is a mistake for us who want to figure out how to get out and through this and get out of it to put it on the shoulders of any one person,” Harris said. “It’s really on all of our shoulders.”

ELSEWHERE…

Trump is doubling down on calls for the Senate to stay in session for August to confirm his nominees.

The Senate is scheduled to gavel out Friday, although it’s unclear what Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) intends to do.

Thune has said putting the Senate into an extended recess to allow Trump to make recess appointments to clear the backlog of pending nominees is “on the table.”

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports:

“Thune isn’t ruling out the idea of opening the way for recess appointments as the Senate faces a huge backlog of 161 nominees, mostly lower-level positions that in past years would have been filled by voice votes or unanimous consent agreements on the floor.”

That move would require 50 of the 53 Republicans to vote in favor. So far, Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) have raised concerns about it.

💡Perspectives:

• The Liberal Patriot: Populism, free speech and the next political realignment.

• Whole Hog Politics: Senate primaries give glimmer of hope to Dems.

• Vox: All of higher ed should be afraid.

• USA Today: Trump’s UCLA, Columbia settlements protect civil rights.

Read more: 

• Cassidy launches Senate reelection bid while bracing for primary.

• Senate panel advances more than $1 trillion in government funding.

• Booker’s criticism of Dems highlights deep divide on fighting Trump.

• Buttigieg faces soft spot with Black voters.

• Trump trains his fire on GOP allies, and worries Republicans.

Here’s who’s talking Sunday…

NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday”: Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin.

Fox’s “Fox News Sunday”: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett.

NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Hassett; Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).

©  Mark Schiefelbein, Associated Press; Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik pool photo via Associated Press

President Trump said Friday the U.S. is positioning two nuclear submarines in “appropriate regions” near Russia, saying the move corresponds with threatening rhetoric from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close adviser to current Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a social media post, Trump cited Medvedev’s “highly provocative statements” and said the nuclear submarines are being moved to the region “just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”

Ukraine is set to receive its first two Patriot air defense systems “in the coming days” as part of the deal the U.S. government struck with NATO last month.

A bipartisan pair of senators introduced legislation this week calling for tens of billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, as Putin continues to rebuff Trump’s calls for an end to the war.

The Hill’s Laura Kelly writes:

“The bill’s passage faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress, where GOP leaders in the House and Senate have deferred to Trump over which legislation makes it to the floor. The administration has slashed foreign aid so far, and administration officials and some GOP lawmakers regularly rally against sending U.S. military and other assistance abroad.”

MEANWHILE…

Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid-distribution site in Gaza on Friday, as international pressure grows on Israel to address the humanitarian and hunger crisis in the enclave.

Witkoff was joined by Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel. The White House said Witkoff and Huckabee will brief Trump on their findings, setting the stage for a U.S. plan to assist in distributing aid to the war-ravaged region.

Trump this week said there is “real starvation” in Gaza, breaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In Washington, Democrats and some MAGA-aligned Republicans are urging the U.S. to cut Israel loose.

On Wednesday, more than half the of the Democratic caucus in the Senate voted in favor of resolutions to block U.S. military sales to Israel.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) missed the vote while she was in New York taping a segment on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Slotkin released a statement Thursday saying she would have voted to oppose U.S. military sales to Israel.

“I have been a strong supporter of the Jewish State of Israel my whole life. And I still am,” Slotkin posted on X. “But despite the fact that Hamas began this bloody round of conflict—and refuses to release the hostages—the images of emaciated children are hard to turn away from.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said Friday “the time has come” to recognize a Palestinian state.

Last week, France became the first Group of Seven (G7) nation to say it would recognize a Palestinian state.

Leaders in Canada and Britain said they’d follow suit if Israel’s war on Hamas does not end soon.

Axios reports that Witkoff and Netanyahu this week discussed the need to secure a comprehensive deal for “the release of all the hostages [held by Hamas], the disarmament of Hamas, and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.”

💡Perspectives:

• Foreign Affairs: Israel’s squandered victory.

• Tablet: Netanyahu’s bugs bunny trial.

• Weekly Dish: The deadliness of Israel’s dead end.

Read more: 

• Putin says Russia’s hypersonic missile will be deployed in Belarus.

• Pentagon says 250 National Guard troops to stay in LA.

• Kavanaugh defends Supreme Court’s handling of emergency appeals.

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