Trump Fired the BLS Jobs Messenger—But Big Government Won’t Bring Jobs Back

Originally published on Substack. 

Trump’s economy isn’t booming—and the data show it. The July jobs report delivered just +73,000 net jobs, with +83,000 in the private sector and a loss of -10,000 government jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2%, and—once again—the previous two months were revised lower by a large -258,000.

So, President Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

But here’s the truth: this wasn’t a reform. It was a reaction. A political one.

And if Trump continues down this path—firing messengers and pushing heavy-handed executive orders—he’ll undermine the best parts of his One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), and drag the country further into the same central-planning mindset we fought so hard to escape.

The Jobs Data Are Flawed—Because Government Broke the Economy

It’s true that BLS data are messy right now. That’s because COVID-19—and the federal shutdowns Trump ordered in 2020—blew up seasonal patterns, disrupted labor flows, and warped the statistical baselines the BLS uses to estimate job growth. Those distortions still affect monthly estimates.

So yes, the data are flawed—but that’s not necessarily the BLS’s fault. And importantly, the BLS has always revised its initial estimates as better data become available.

The real misunderstanding here is confusing the size of those revisions with their meaning. Yes, revised numbers are larger but that’s because employment is larger.

What matters is how accurate the first estimate is as a percent of total employment. And as this chart shows, those percent revisions have declined since at least 1965:

In other words, the BLS has gotten better at estimating job growth—not worse—over time. Firing the BLS commissioner won’t stop revisions but it might make jobs reports more political, causing more uncertainty in an already stressed economy.

The Debanking Order: More Control, Less Competition

Unfortunately, Trump’s big-government instinct didn’t stop with the BLS. His team is preparing a sweeping executive order targeting banks accused of “debanking” conservatives.

Operation Choke Point 1.0 under Obama supposedly had regulators weaponize the financial system to blacklist politically disfavored industries. And Operation Choke Point 2.0 under Biden arguably did similar things. Who knows how often debanking happened if at all under other presidents. But the problem is the regulators—not the banks.

Banks want more customers. They make profits by serving people, not excluding them. If they start politicizing access to capital, they’ll lose business to competitors.

The solution isn’t more federal mandates—it’s more competition.

If Trump wants to fix the banking issues, he should repeal Dodd-Frank, reduce compliance burdens, and let new financial firms enter the market. More banks, more innovation, and more choice will fix this faster than any executive order ever could.

Even OBBB Can’t Outrun Bad Policy

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill got a few things right: it made TCJA permanent, secured full expensing, and improved work requirements for Medicaid.

​But it also included too much spending, temporary flawed tax carveouts, and failed to simplify the tax code. That makes the short term and long-term growth impacts questionable. And when paired with protectionism, price controls, and executive overreach—it’s not hard to see why the private economy is stalling.

You can’t deregulate one sector while micromanaging another. You can’t claim to unleash growth while clamping down on market signals.

And you can’t fire your way out of bad data.

A Better Way Forward:

• Privatize economic reporting. Let ADP, Indeed, Homebase, and others compete with or without BLS.
• End the trade war. Tariffs are taxes—and they’re hurting American families and businesses.
• Restore trust in institutions by shrinking them. Eliminate the Department of Labor. It’s not needed. Let the market do the job.
• Unleash competition in banking. Don’t regulate more—deregulate and let choice flourish.
• Cut government spending and cap any growth to the rate of population growth plus inflation. No more blank checks.

Conclusion

Trump’s frustration is real—and justified. But the path forward isn’t more control. It’s more freedom. The economy won’t recover through firings and executive mandates. It will recover when we trust people over politicians, markets over mandates, and competition over coercion.

Let the market work. Let the numbers speak. Let freedom ring. Let people prosper!