U.S. Sen. Susan Collins did not comment Monday on President Donald Trump’s firing of the federal labor statistics chief over a weaker-than-expected jobs report that the Republican president claimed without evidence was “rigged.”
The rest of Maine’s congressional delegation criticized Trump’s decision Friday to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, whom former President Joe Biden nominated in 2023. The government’s monthly jobs report showed 73,000 jobs added in July and also gave revised data indicating 258,000 fewer jobs than previously estimated for May and June.
Trump’s social media post announcing McEntarfer’s firing said the latest numbers were “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.” It was condemned by former Bureau of Labor Statistics leaders who served under Trump and Democratic presidents and criticized as a chilling move over data that economists have accepted as free from bias.
Every monthly jobs report, including those that Trump has previously highlighted to take credit for growth, includes revisions to the prior two months’ figures after more businesses respond to a government survey on hiring data. The latest report was a sign the economy has weakened amid pressure from Trump’s ever-changing tariffs.
Spokespeople for Collins, the lone Republican in Maine’s congressional delegation, did not respond to a Monday request for comment. A few of her colleagues took issue with Trump’s move. U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, said it is “not the statistician’s fault if the numbers are accurate and that they’re not what the president had hoped for.”
U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said firing an “apolitical professional because you don’t like the numbers they report is grossly political and will seriously undermine confidence that we’re getting the unbiased data we need to make good decisions.”
“The president can shoot the messenger and try to fudge the numbers, but unfortunately the real-life impacts of his misguided policies will soon be clear for all to see,” King said in a statement.
McEntarfer became the commissioner in January 2024 after the Senate voted 86-8 to confirm her, with now-Vice President JD Vance, Collins and King among the yes votes. Commissioners typically serve four-year terms. William Beach, McEntarfer’s Trump-appointed predecessor, said the firing “sets a dangerous precedent” and undermines the bureau.
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat who represents Maine’s 2nd District that has backed Trump in each of his elections, said Monday if the labor statistics leader “was actually releasing sloppy, inaccurate reports, replacing the leadership may have been appropriate.”
“But if the president simply made this decision because he didn’t like the facts, that’s a totally unjustified firing and a real problem,” Golden said.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, said Congress “must investigate and act to protect the independence of our economic data before the president inflicts even more damage on our economy.”
“This is straight from the authoritarian playbook: silence truth-tellers, manipulate the numbers and gaslight the American people,” Pingree added.
Collins coauthored a 2024 letter to McEntarfer criticizing the agency for “an inability to produce initially reliable data.” It contrasted revisions during Biden’s presidency with those under Trump’s first term and pressed the job statistics chief to answer questions on its practices.
“BLS cannot continue to process and release data in the same manner it always has and expect a different outcome,” Collins and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, wrote then.
Trump and his allies sought to defend McEntarfer’s firing over the weekend, with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett saying the president “wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they’re more transparent and more reliable.”
Asked on NBC’s Meet the Press about any evidence Trump has over his “rigged” job numbers claim, Hassett only said the “revisions are hard evidence.”
The Trump administration said William Wiatrowski, the deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, will serve as acting director. Trump said Sunday he plans to announce a new leader “sometime over the next three, four days.”
