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President Donald Trump said on Aug. 3 that he would appoint a new Federal Reserve governor and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner within the next few days.
Trump was addressing the resignations of Fed Gov. Adriana Kugler and BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, saying he would announce their replacements soon.
Kugler, whose term was set to expire in January 2026, said she will exit the central bank on Aug. 8, without providing a reason for the move. The Fed stated that Kugler would return to Georgetown University as a professor this fall.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said he has a “couple of people in mind” to replace Kugler and expects to announce his pick soon.
“I think she left early because she agreed with me on interest rates, and yet they were on the other side of the ballpark,” the president said of Kugler’s resignation.
The Trump administration has been at loggerheads with the Fed on interest rate cuts. Trump wants the Fed to lower interest rates to make borrowing less expensive, but the central bank has kept its benchmark policy rate unchanged at 4.25 to 4.5 percent.
Kugler’s resignation comes after the Fed voted last week to maintain current interest rates, a decision opposed by two Trump appointees, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, who called for a quarter-point rate cut. Kugler did not participate in the vote but had previously voiced support for holding rates steady until the effects of Trump’s new tariffs on inflation became clearer.
Trump also said he would announce a new BLS commissioner “in the next three or four days.”
He fired McEntarfer over allegations that she manipulated job data and falsified employment numbers before the 2024 election, allegedly in an effort to boost presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s chances of victory.
“We had no confidence. I mean the numbers were ridiculous, what she announced,” Trump said. “It’s a scam, in my opinion.”
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer stated on X that Deputy Commissioner William Wiatrowski will serve as acting commissioner while the administration looks for a replacement.
McEntarfer responded to her dismissal in a post on social media platform Bluesky, writing, “It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy.”
The latest data released by BLS showed that the U.S. economy added 73,000 new jobs last month, below the consensus forecast, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent from 4.1 percent.
The federal agency also revised the May and June numbers lower by a combined 258,000, which places the three-month employment growth rate at just 35,000.
BLS said in its report that “monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.”
Tom Ozimek and Andrew Moran contributed to this report.
