Trump Trots Out His Own Numbers on the Economy — Days After Firing Data Chief
President Donald Trump brought economist Steve Moore into the Oval Office on Thursday to present some new economic data – days after he fired the head of the Department of Labor Statistics.
Trump accused Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Biden-appointed Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), of “rigging” jobs data to make him look “bad” after July’s numbers came in soft and the BLS revised down the numbers of jobs added in May and June.
“In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad — Just like when they had three great days around the 2024 Presidential Election, and then, those numbers were “taken away” on November 15, 2024, right after the Election, when the Jobs Numbers were massively revised DOWNWARD, making a correction of over 818,000 Jobs — A TOTAL SCAM. Jerome “Too Late” Powell is no better! But, the good news is, our Country is doing GREAT!” Trump fumed.
Moore, however, painted a much sunnier picture of the economy while flattering Trump.
“Thank you, Mr. President. So I called the President because I had some very good news from some new data that we’ve been able to put together that no one has ever seen before. And I’ll just very quickly go through these,” Moore began, adding:
So, I was telling the President that he did the right thing in calling for a new head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because this shows that over the last two years of the Biden administration, the BLS overestimated job creation by 1.5 million jobs. That’s a, Mr. President, that’s a gigantic error. And I don’t know if it’s…
“It might not have been an error, that’s the bad part. If it was an error, it would be one thing. I don’t think it’s an error; I think they did it purposely,” Trump added.
“Whether or not—you may well be right—but even if it wasn’t purposeful, it’s incompetence. OK. So, 1.5 million jobs overestimated. We have access to some data that no one else does,” continued Moore, adding:
What has happened month by month with median household income—this is based on unpublished Census Bureau data. It will be released sometime in the next six months, but we get an advanced look at it. And so I was telling the President in his first five months in office, starting in January through the end of June, the average median household income adjusted for inflation for the average family in America is already up $1,174.
“That’s an incredible number. Just came out. Just came up. So that’s a giant gain,” Trump crowed, adding, “And if I would have said this, nobody would have believed it.”
“There’s your number,” Trump added, showing the graph to the press, adding, “We’re doing well.
“So the next one compares—we finally have the 2024 data on what happened with real family income in the United States. And so what I did was I compared the record in Donald Trump’s first term with the Joe Biden first term. And you can see that, by the way, these dotted lines here, Mr. President, that’s COVID. So if it had not been for COVID, these numbers would have been substantially better,” Moore said.
“But even taking into account President Trump’s last year in 2020, we saw a $6,400 real after-inflation gain in income for the average family. And that compares with Joe Biden, which was a measly $551. So, Mr. President, you gained 10 times more income for the average family than Joe Biden. It’s because of your policies,” he continued, praising Trump. Moore went on to discuss other economic indicators, all of which he said show the strength of Trump’s economy.
Trump’s firing of McEntarfer in early August led to widespread criticism, with pundits warning that Trump was intimidating government officials to only present him positive information. Others argued that the move would cast doubt on any data released by McEntarfer’s successor, who would no longer be seen as impartial.
Watch the full clip above via NewsNation.
