Trump’s long-term critic, ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, has now compared the Trump administration to that of Turkey and Venezuela since he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Erika McEntarfer stated that the economy has been able to generate only 73,000 jobs.
The president wasn’t pleased with the labor statistics announcements for July. The administration and White House predicted 109,000 jobs; however, the stats say otherwise now.
The difference in numbers is a direct challenge to the administration. Trump accused the BLS department of changing the number. According to him, they might have done it to make him look bad, along with the rest of the Republicans.
“There’s no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated this number… This is the stuff of democracies giving way to authoritarianism.”
— @LHSummers on Pres. Trump’s surprise firing of the BLS commissioner after a weak jobs report: https://t.co/Qz9svwhnKP pic.twitter.com/lZhl2Xv4hg— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 3, 2025
George, on his This Week Sunday show, stated that suppression of statisticians is a tool for leaders to stifle dissent while also increasing their power over them.
He further said that we have seen this happening throughout the past years, giving recent examples of Turkey and Venezuela. In these regions, the presidents were quick to punish those who were not on the party’s side.
He continued to mention that firing the BLS head was baseless, which isn’t an American tradition to dismiss because of politics. The administration refused to send someone to shed light on Erika’s dismissal.
Trump’s firing of the head of the BLS, following a poor jobs report, is something that happens in autocratic societies.
Consider when Turkey’s economic agency reported that the country’s inflation rate was at 36 percent, President Erdogan fired the agency’s head and replaced him
— Barri 🟦 (@RosenBarrie) August 4, 2025
The show had invited the White House to send a guest to discuss the event; however, they refused. Apart from having to acknowledge the firing reasons, another reason for not sending a guest may be the long-term feud between Trump and Stephanopoulos.
Trump has targeted and belittled the news reporter for criticizing the president. He has called him names like George Slopadopolus, something that Trump does, giving funny names to people he does not like, such as sleepy Biden.
Last year, Stephanopoulos called him a politician who was also liable for rape. This ended with Trump sending him a defamation lawsuit, which was resolved for $15 million by Disney. George is still persistent in calling out Trump and the administration. He is on to exposing the administration’s tactics.
