A new Federal Reserve governor and a new Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner will be announced in the coming days, President Donald Trump announced Sunday to a group of reporters.
The appointments will be named after Fed governor Adriana Kugler announced her resignation on Friday, to take effect August 8, and after Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday.
The moves will give Trump the chance to position appointees aligned with his administration policies, and put further pressure on Fed chair Jerome Powell. The Fed Board consists of seven members who are first nominated by the president and then confirmed by the Senate. It is an independent panel that directs the nation’s monetary policy.
In regards to filling Kugler’s seat after her resignation, Trump said: “I have a couple of people in mind. I will be announcing for the filling of the person that left … a woman left, as you know, who was a … I guess a Biden appointment. Either Biden or Obama, but I think a Biden appointment,” Trump told the reports from Allentown, Penn., where he was traveling back to the capitol after spending the weekend in New Jersey. “And she left early, and I think because she agreed with me on interest rates, and yet they were on the other side of the ballpark, right? So I will be announcing that, probably, over the next couple of days.”
During her time as Fed governor, Kugler regularly was aligned with Powell’s policies.
Potential successors include National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, sitting Fed governor, Christopher Waller, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who last year suggested the idea of a “shadow chair“ to challenge Powell during the remainder of his term as chair.
McEntarfer’s firing has been criticized by lawmakers and officials on both sides of the aisle.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the Senate Banking Committee, was critical of the decision to fire the BLS commissioner. “If she was just fired because the president or whoever decided to fire the director just did it because they didn’t like the numbers, they ought to grow up,” Tillis said.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., called it a problem if the president is firing the statistician because he doesn’t like the numbers, if they are accurate, calling it “Kind of impetuous.”
“It’s not the statisticians fault if the numbers are accurate and they’re not what the president had hoped for,” Lummis told reporters.
In a social media post Saturday, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D- Ga., called the jobs report dismal. “Rather than getting focused on how to create American jobs, he fired the person whose job it is to tell him the truth. Mr. Trump, here’s an idea – how about changing course from your ill-conveived tariffs scheme, that is driving the cost up for everything, creating uncertainty, and discouraging employers from hiring new people? Hey, how about giving middle class people and working class people a tax cut, rather than billionaires? Certainly that will help to drive this consumer economic. In other words, Mr. Trump, do your job.”
McEntarfer posted on her personal social media Bluesky account after the firing. “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. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.”
