President Donald Trump held an event at the White House today with an economist in which they both insisted that his firing of the United States' top economic statistician was justified. But several experts noticed that both Trump and his economist weren't giving Americans the full picture.
During the event, economist Stephen Moore — who is a co-author of the far-right Project 2025 playbook — stood aside a chart and claimed that under former President Joe Biden's administration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) overestimated job growth by 1.5 million jobs. Trump insisted the overestimation was intentional, while Moore said regardless of the intent it showed "incompetence" on the part of the Biden administration's BLS.
However, as the New York Times pointed out, adjustments of jobs numbers are a routine part of what the BLS does, with the paper calling it "an inevitable if sometimes frustrating part of trying to measure a $30 trillion economy."
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But even when taking the adjustments into account, CNN reported that the Biden administration oversaw the creation of approximately 16.6 million jobs between February of 2021 (his first full month in the White House) and December of 2024. And while some of those jobs were the economy rebounding from the Covid-19 pandemic and adding jobs that had been lost as the economy shut down, the U.S. economy surpassed pre-pandemic employment levels by June of 2022, and continued to add roughly 240,000 new jobs each month — well above the monthly average of 125,000 new jobs per month since 1939.
Both Trump and Moore were roundly mocked on social media over their presentation. Former Biden administration official Dan Koh tweeted: "This is their playbook. Cast doubt on BLS methodology, use that to replace it altogether, jobs numbers magically higher, Trump celebrates despite apples to oranges. Don't be fooled — more language like this will be in the new appointee's first words to the public."
Alex Jacquez, who was an economic advisor in the Biden White House, also piled on, writing: "Ah ok so they’re going straight to making up numbers. Doesn’t bode well!"
Journalist Jim Stewartson made fun of Moore by pointing out that he was an advisor to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain (who proposed the notoriously regressive "9-9-9" tax plan). Journalist Aaron Rupar called Moore a "quack economist" in posting the video of his presentation. Progressive influencer JoJofromJerz reminded her followers that Moore has a $75,000 lien for unpaid federal taxes from 2018. CNBC reporter Megan Cassella wryly noted that one of Moore's charts used the term "medium income" (the proper term is "median income"). And Decatur, Alabama-based journalist Franklin Harris called Moore an "embarrassment" and a "craven sellout."
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Watch the video of Trump and Moore's event below, or by clicking this link.