Larry Summers says Trump's accusations of manipulated jobs numbers are 'preposterous' [View all]

Source: ABC News

August 3, 2025, 10:55 AM


Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers called President Donald Trump's accusation without providing evidence that the top Bureau of Labor Statistics official manipulated jobs report numbers "a preposterous charge" on Sunday.

Speaking with "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos, Summers said that one official would not be able to change the numbers.

"These numbers are put together by teams of literally hundreds of people following detailed procedures that are in manuals. There's no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated this number," Summers said.

He added, "The numbers are in line with what we're seeing from all kinds of private sector sources. This is the stuff of democracies giving way to authoritarianism. It — firing statisticians goes with threatening the heads of newspapers. It goes with launching assaults on universities. It goes with launching assaults on law firms that defend clients that the elected boss finds uncongenial. This is really scary stuff."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/larry-summers-trumps-accusations-manipulated-jobs-numbers-preposterous/story?id=124321470