No Evidence for Trump’s Claims of ‘Rigged’ or ‘Phony’ Job Numbers

Hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released employment data showing slow job growth for July and prior months, President Donald Trump fired the BLS commissioner, claiming the job numbers were “phony” and that the commissioner had “faked” other job figures to help Democrats. There’s no evidence the commissioner, or others at BLS, manipulated the data, and Trump hasn’t provided any.

The Frances Perkins Department of Labor building on Aug. 4. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

The president’s timeline on past BLS announcements supposedly attempting to aid Democrats in the 2024 election is also incorrect.

Trump’s claims echo his past baseless assertions that the Biden administration had manipulated data on jobs. Last August, he claimed an annual revision of BLS figures was a “total lie.”