Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary ripped President Donald Trump over his firing of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Dr. Erika McEntarfer on Friday after a disappointing jobs report.
Newsweek reached out to an economic analyst via email for additional comment.
Why It Matters
Trump’s decision to oust McEntarfer has triggered widespread concern among economists, business leaders and former government officials about the independence of U.S. economic data reporting.
The abrupt dismissal followed the release of lackluster job numbers and marked a rare direct intervention by a president in the work of a nonpartisan federal agency responsible for compiling critical economic statistics.
The number of new jobs for July dipped well below even modest expectations, with only 73,000 positions added, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 100,000.
This move has now fueled debate over the politicization of federal agencies, the integrity of government data and potential impact on market and public trust in official economic indicators.
What To Know
Trump announced McEntarfer’s firing on Truth Social Friday, also accusing her of manipulating data to benefit former Vice President Kamala Harris around the 2024 presidential election “to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory.”
While speaking on CNN after Trump’s announcement, O’Leary was asked about Trump’s economic policies impacting him as an investor.
“I don’t look at one day’s trading and decide I’m going to change my strategy,” O’Leary said. “I want markets to correct. I want them to go up and down. We’re used to volatility. We had a bad print on jobs. I did not agree on whacking the commissioner. I don’t like that.”
O’Leary continued: “Whacking statisticians makes no sense whatsoever. You don’t shoot the messenger. They used to do that in Ancient Rome. Bad news. They’d kill a guy off the horse. You don’t need to do that now. It doesn’t matter. This is a job where you just print data. So, I didn’t like that story.”
“I think the market is a little concerned about major trading partners not getting deals yet that make sense. It’s not a good idea to have 35 percent tariffs on Canada, we know that that’s coming into place at midnight right now, unless something magic happens,” O’Leary added.
McEntarfer’s firing coincided with a significant drop in U.S. stock markets on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 542 points (1.2 percent), the S&P 500 fell 1.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite dropped 2.2 percent. This downward movement was attributed to both weak job figures and a new round of U.S. tariffs announced by Trump.
What People Are Saying
JB Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, posted to X on Friday: “Donald Trump just fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because she stated the facts. And the facts show his policies are a disaster for the American economy. Trump said he’d be a dictator on day one and that’s just what he’s acting like.”
Trump, in an interview with Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty on Friday: “We had some difficulties with her, and there had been a lot of questions and we fired her because we didn’t believe the numbers today.”
What Happens Next
It remains uncertain who will be nominated as the next permanent BLS commissioner. Trump announced on Truth Social that McEntarfer “will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.”
Former BLS chief William Beach and other Friends of BLS Co-Chairs called for an investigation of Trump’s firing of McEntarfer.
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