Overview

• President Trump held an impromptu Oval Office briefing to unveil what he called “all-new numbers” after denouncing last week’s jobs report as rigged.
• Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore argued that the BLS overstated job gains by comparing initial monthly releases with final revisions and claimed a 1.5 million-job overcount.
• Former BLS Commissioner William Beach countered that every chart figure was wrong, citing a double-counting error and warning that political doubts in the data threaten market confidence.
• The White House has installed William Wiatrowski as acting BLS leader and is searching for a permanent successor while proposing budget cuts and agency modernization.
• Economists caution that Executive Branch interference, dissolved advisory panels and budget pressures could erode trust in nonpartisan economic indicators and unsettle investment decisions.