Economists and Democrat lawmakers have slammed President Donald Trump for firing the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after they published a weaker-than-expected jobs report for July.

Trump accused director Erika McEntarfer, without evidence, of manipulating the reports for political reasons and announced on Truth Social that he had directed his team to fire her “immediately.”

“Kill the messenger,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrote on X as she shared an article about Trump’s move.

Economist Ernie Tedeschi added on X that he’d worked with McEntarfer directly and knew “no economist who is more data-focused & devoted to truth in statistics.”

“She never shied from speaking truth to power when the data were disappointing. Nothing would be worse for US credibility than political meddling in our economic data,” he added.

This is a breaking news story, updates to follow.