'Big boo-boo': GOP senators turn on Trump over fears of 'economic downturn'

05 August

U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) walks to a policy luncheon meeting on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

When the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) delivered a disappointing jobs report on Friday, August 1 and President Donald Trump responded by firing BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer and accusing her of rigging the data, some Republicans were quick to echo his claims.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) told Fox News that McEntarfer was generating "fake reports" and added, "I'm glad she’s out of a job." Similarly, Vice President JD Vance said he was "glad to see" Trump "dismiss the BLS commissioner."

But The Hill's Alexander Bolton, in an article published on August 5, stresses that not all Republicans are reflexively echoing Trump's claims about the U.S. economy.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), a critic of Trump's tariffs and one of the few Republicans who voted against Trump's "big, beautiful bill," told The Hill, "It definitely is indicative of a weakened economy, an economy that’s not acting in a robust fashion. I've all along felt like there’s a lag between tariffs and actual economic downturn."

Paul, the son of libertarian former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), warned, "I've had retailers telling me that they think their prices will have to change in the fall. As their initial contracts change, their input price is higher (and) goods will go higher too. I think it is worrisome, and I do worry that the news has been relatively benign on tariffs so far. The proof is really in the next couple months. I think there's more to come. I don't think we’ve seen the full impact of tariffs."

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) is worried about Trump's tariffs as well.

Moran told The Hill, "My view is that there's no question that consumers, Americans, pay a price for tariffs. It increases the price of the goods coming into the United States. The question is, 'Is there a reason that tariffs in a temporary way can solve trade barriers that have been artificially created against our products going somewhere else?'"

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) warns that accusing McEntarfer, without evidence, of rigging the numbers is problematic for the U.S. economy.

Tillis told The Hill, "The numbers are what the numbers are. If we get to a point to where BLS (and) all these organizations that are considered to be the gold standard for data, if we start undermining them or people start losing their jobs because we don't like the result, that’s a big boo-boo."

Read Alexander Bolton's full article for The Hill at this link.

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