A top aide to former President Barack Obama roasted President Donald Trump for firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over an abysmal jobs report.
“From now on, all jobs numbers will be coming from the guy who says he’s 6’3’’ and weighs 215,” read the caption to an unflattering image of Trump in his golf threads posted by David Axelrod, who served as chief strategy advisor to both of Obama’s presidential campaigns and then as a top aide in the Obama White House.
On Friday, Trump fired Erika McEntarfer as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after the agency released data showing U.S. employers had only created 73,000 new jobs in July, falling well below the 109,000 forecasted by the White House. BLS also revised its estimate of employment statistics for the previous two months by more than 250,000.
Trump accused McEntarfer of having “RIGGED” the jobs numbers in order “to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad” amid outcry at the largest non-COVID-related drop in more than 45 years.
The move has prompted backlash from Trump’s political opponents, with Democrats accusing his administration of politicizing economic data, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blasting him as a “bad leader” who “shoots the messenger” over numbers he doesn’t like.
Trump’s physician claimed in 2016 that he was 6’3” and weighed 236 pounds. Critics noted that Trump doesn’t appear to stack up in photos beside other public figures known to be of that height.
The president again listed his height as 6’3”, but his weight as 215 pounds, when he was booked in Fulton County on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
The issue resurfaced earlier this week after Trump gave a press conference Thursday standing beside NFL star Harrison Butker, who dwarfs the president in photos from the event despite supposedly standing a mere inch taller than him.
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