Trump angry over confirmations delay; administration suffers bruising week of poor economic, trade and employment numbers – key US politics stories from Sunday 3 August at a glance
It has not been a brilliant weekend for Donald Trump. On Sunday administration officials fanned out on US political shows to defend the president’s policies after a bruising week of poor economic, trade and employment numbers that culminated with the firing of labor statistics chief Erika McEntarfer.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said Trump has “real concerns” about the jobs numbers that extend beyond Friday’s report that showed the national economy added 73,000 jobs in July, far below expectations. Job growth numbers were revised down by 285,000 for the two previous months as well.
On CBS News’s Face the Nation, Greer defended Trump’s decision to fire McEntarfer, a respected statistician, saying: “You want to be able to have somewhat reliable numbers. There are always revisions, but sometimes you see these revisions go in really extreme ways.”
It comes as the president himself lashed out at Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on social media, telling him: “GO TO HELL!” after a Senate standoff over confirmations.
