Trump says he'll name BLS chief, Fed governor in coming days
President Trump told reporters Sunday he plans to announce a new commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the next three or four days after he fired the previous BLS leader in the wake of a jobs report that found the labor market stalling.
"We'll be announcing a new statistician sometime over the next three, four days," Trump said as he returned to Washington after a weekend at his property in New Jersey.
Trump on Friday had ordered the firing of Erika McEntarfer, a Biden White House appointee who was confirmed with a bipartisan majority in the Senate in 2024.
The move, which has sparked outrage among economists, Democratic lawmakers and others, came after the jobs report released Friday showed lower than expected hiring in July and major downward revisions to the jobs reports from May and June.
The president also said he would be announcing a nominee to replace Federal Reserve board of governors member Adriana Kugler, who announced Friday she will resign from the central bank’s board Aug. 8.
"I have a couple of people in mind. I'll be announcing somebody for the filling of the person that left," Trump said. "A woman left, as you know, I guess a Biden or Obama appointment."
Kugler was appointed to the Fed board by former President Biden and confirmed in 2023. She will leave the bank six months before the end of her term in January 2026.
While it's common for board members to leave the bank before their terms expire, especially when they are not expected to be renominated, Kugler's exit comes as Trump has relentlessly pressured Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the rest of the board members to lower interest rates.