Trump tariffs live updates: President rages against weak jobs report and fires Labor official as markets fall on new import taxes

President Donald Trump fired the chief labor statistician after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly jobs report showing that the economy added only 73,000 jobs in July.

The number comes the same day that Trump resumes his global tariffs. Hours later, Trump criticized Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, implying she could not be trusted because former President Joe Biden nominated her.

“We need accurate Jobs Numbers,” he posted. “I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY.”

Eric Garcia reports from Washington, D.C.

Eric Garcia has the details.

New tariffs threaten to significantly increase the cost of popular menu items such as coffee and hamburgers, alongside essential ingredients like spices, according to the National Restaurant Association. The body, which represents over a million US eateries and food service providers, issued the warning on Friday.

Michelle Korsmo, the association’s president and chief executive, stated that restaurants operate on extremely tight margins, meaning these tariffs will inevitably force many establishments to raise their prices. Such increases, she cautioned, would deter diners from eating out as frequently, thereby jeopardising an industry that underpins millions of jobs across the country.

The association is now calling for food and beverages to be exempted from these tariffs.

Korsmo urged the Trump administration to “continue with sensible trade agreements,” adding in a statement: “While addressing trade deficits is important, food and beverage products are not major contributors to these imbalances.”

With reporting from the AP

Canada could walk away from trade talks with the U.S. after Washington imposed a 35 percent tariff on certain Canadian goods, an adviser to Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, increasing tariffs on Canadian products not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement from 25 percent to 35 percent. The White House cited Canada’s alleged failure to curb fentanyl smuggling and address U.S. concerns over trade barriers as justification.

Flavio Volpe, a member of Carney’s hand-picked Council on Canada-U.S. Relations, confirmed to CBC News that Canadian negotiators remain in Washington for the time being.

“Team Canada is still in Washington working on a deal and they’re going to be there until we either have a conclusion of a good deal for Canada or that it’s time to take a pause and walk away,” said Volpe, who also serves as president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.

Prime Minister Carney seeks a new agreement to reset bilateral relations, stating that Trump’s tariff imposition has “irrevocably upended” the decades-old trading and security ties between the two nations. However, talks have yielded little progress so far.

Washington is also reportedly displeased with Canada’s refusal to drop its own countermeasures, initially imposed by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom Carney replaced after winning an April election on a platform of standing up to Trump.

In June, Carney had threatened to ramp up counter tariffs in July unless there was progress on the deal. A statement he issued early on Friday did not mention retaliation.

With reporting from Reuters

President Donald Trump answered questions from White House reporters as he departed for a weekend of golf.

Asked about the weak jobs report today, the president claims the economy is doing “so well” and the numbers were “phony,” so he fired the official responsible, Dr. Erika McEntarfer.

Asked whether, going forward, anyone should trust the numbers, Trump repeated a conspiracy theory about the jobs numbers before the election, which were subsequently revised down.

President Donald Trump’s first-term appointee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics has called the firing of his successor “totally groundless,” saying it sets a “dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau.”

He cosigned a letter condemning the president’s move, along with other friends of the bureau, that calls on Congress “to respond immediately, to investigate the factors that led to Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal, to strongly urge the Commissioner’s continued service, and ensure that the nonpartisan integrity of the position is retained.”

In response to the firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman issued the following statement, referencing “Newspeak,” the official language of Oceania in George Orwell’s 1984, designed to control citizens:

“Trump has made a career of calling up down, and calling the truth a lie. But the threat to the integrity of the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the trusted source of objective, factual information about the state of the economy — is a Newspeak project of a whole other level and will undermine not just public understanding but evidence-based policymaking altogether.

“As with so much else under Trump, this move is profoundly troubling, but not surprising. Authoritarians always try to control and dominate the information landscape to undermine opposition to their harmful policies.

“Yet again, to advance his narrow, personal and political interests, Donald Trump is undermining the interests of the United States and leaving us a weaker and more vulnerable nation.”

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming weighed in on the firing of Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by President Donald Trump over his displeasure with the weak jobs numbers for July.

“I think it’s kind of impetuous to fire the statistician without first knowing whether the numbers are inaccurate. It’s not the statistician’s fault if the numbers are accurate and that they’re not what the President had hoped for.”

In a gaggle with reporters on the South Lawn before leaving for Bedminster, his New Jersey golf club, President Donald Trump says he has several names in mind to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The president says he has had concerns about revisions to the jobs reports for a while and says, “We need someone honest” to lead the agency.

He also said he will release the list of donors for the planned White House Ballroom project, but suggested he might pay the $200 million cost himself.