In firing the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs report, President Donald Trump claimed that the recent weaker-than-expected numbers were phony—and that the positive figures reported before the 2024 election were manipulated to make him look bad.

Associated Press reporter Meg Kinnard explains this pattern in Trump’s reactions.

“Take a look at this post from Truth Social from November 1, 2024,” Kinnard said. “Trump called a relatively flat jobs report an embarrassment for the United States."

It’s a familiar cadence Trump has followed in responding to jobs data: He treats the figures as legitimate when they’re favorable to him—and labels them fraudulent when they are less than stellar or seem to benefit his opponent.

“In April 2025, Trump praised a job report that showed the addition of 228,000 jobs to the US market. This was just a few months into his own presidential administration," Kinnard added.

In a Truth Social post last week, Trump announced he had fired Erica McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.