The 'Rigged' Jobs Data

Plus: AI reanimations of those who've died, Elizabeth Warren x Zohran Mamdani, and more...

His side of the story: The president made headlines yesterday after announcing he would be firing the commissioner of labor statistics, who he alleges has been producing jobs reports that are "rigged" against his administration. This morning, he was asked about it: "The [Bureau of Labor Statistics] commissioner doesn't even really get involved with the actual minutia of putting [jobs reports] together.…These are statistical changes based on this antiquated system, and it's just a big leap to go to 'rigged.' And then it also, Mr. President, it makes anyone you pick…critics are gonna say, 'Hey, he's picking a guy or a gal who's giving him the numbers he wants,' so it undermines confidence in the system to some extent," CNBC's Joe Kernan posed to President Donald Trump on Squawk Box this morning.

"When they say that nobody was involved, that it wasn't political, give me a break. Look, before the election, we had this massive, massive outflow of beauty for [Joe] Biden, I mean, we didn't know he was alive….I mean [they claimed] the economy was roaring, it was a beautiful thing. And I said there's no way this is happening; it's going the opposite direction. And two weeks later, they said I was right," responded Trump, referring to an unclear time period, who then just sort of kept meandering.

"Biden wasn't doing well; he was doing poorly. They announced these phenomenal numbers two days before the election, and a little bit before that, always these great numbers….But think of it, then they did the biggest revision I think in history of almost 900,000 jobs….So they gave phony numbers in order to win the election. After I won the election I said, 'Too big to rig!'"

Trump is probably referring to a reduction made in August 2024, so several months before the election, in which the BLS announced a preliminary estimate that the number of jobs created over the 12 months from March 2023 to March 2024 would be adjusted downward by 818,000—part of the annual "benchmarking" process. But the particulars really do matter, especially if his claim is that the timing of the BLS' reports was done in a manner that it hoped would affect the outcome of the election.

Trump is really incorrect on the particulars and has struggled to marshal evidence to support his claim that the BLS has been systematically trying to hurt him when releasing jobs reports. But two things are possibly correct: That such massive errors that require such revisions indicate real, persistent issues with methodology that need to be corrected, and that Biden was given an awful lot of free passes by media and onlookers in the government as he ran the economy into the ground, with revisions being covered a lot less than the initial headlines.

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Trump in high heels: Just what we needed. Rep. Nancy Mace (R–S.C.) has decided to run for governor of South Carolina. Once a more moderate Republican, she's now gone full sycophant, saying she'll be a "super MAGA governor."

"It'll be Trump in high heels," she told reporters, announcing her ambitions.

"South Carolina gave Mr. Trump his first primary victory in 2016, helping propel him to the presidency. Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican who was lieutenant governor at the time, was one of the first state politicians in the country to endorse Mr. Trump. And Mr. Trump has easily won the state, one of the fastest growing in the country, three times," reports The New York Times. But this election will be held toward the end of next year, and midterm elections don't tend to look so great for the party currently in the White House. By that point, Trump will be nearing the end of his term, but Mace appears to be all-in on Trumpism as an ideology. It'll be interesting to see which politicians carry the mantle and which components of Trumpism outlast the man himself.

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Reanimating those who've died: The journalist Jim Acosta hosted an AI "reanimation" of Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver, who died in the 2018 school shooting, on his show. Oliver delivered a message calling for gun control and greater mental health resources:

A show you don't want to miss at 4p ET / 1p PT. I'll be having a one of a kind interview with Joaquin Oliver. He died in the Parkland school shooting in 2018. But his parents have created an AI version of their son to deliver a powerful message on gun violence. Plus Texas State… pic.twitter.com/mbdM2WxwUR

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 4, 2025

Oliver's parents created this AI version of him. People grieve in all different ways, but I believe it's unethical to use this reanimation to advance a specific political agenda—which both the parents and Acosta are doing. The use of artificial intelligence to reanimate the dead desecrates the memories of those who've passed by letting us hubristically assume we know how the dead would've grown and changed and reacted to specific circumstances.

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Scenes from New York: Zohran Mamdani x Elizabeth Warren, the crossover event we were all dreading.

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QUICK HITS

• I wonder if we'll see disturbing effects years down the road that stem from lacking a canon:

I'm less fussy about what's in the canon than about the fact that we need a canon. When I visit even elite colleges now, it strikes me that the kids have fewer and fewer common references. They don't recognize bible quotes, don't recognize Shakespeare, don't recognize Dickens …… https://t.co/OV7iNvexXZ

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) August 4, 2025

• "Israel's cabinet could authorise on Tuesday a complete military takeover of Gaza for the first time in two decades, media reported, despite international pressure for a ceasefire to ease appalling conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory," reports Reuters. "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leaning towards an expanded offensive and taking control of the entire enclave after 22 months of war against militant group Hamas, Israeli Channel 12 reported."
• "Taiwan prosecutors arrested six people suspected of stealing trade secrets from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., opening an investigation into a potential breach of national security involving a global tech industry linchpin," reports Bloomberg. "On Tuesday, the Nikkei reported that TSMC fired several employees suspected of trying to obtain critical information on 2-nanometer chip development. That next-generation semiconductor process is entering mass production in the second half of this year."
• "Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Denzel Perryman has been released from police custody, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has declined to press charges, according to public records," reports The Athletic. "Perryman was released from custody at 2:03 p.m. PT Monday, according to records. Authorities arrested Perryman on Friday for multiple gun violations, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. Ron Butler, Perryman's agent, confirmed Monday that charges had been dropped."

This should be a much bigger story than it is imo.

An NFL player has been held in jail for 4 days without bail for owning CA non-compliant rifles. https://t.co/ilYxwFXlA7

— Kenjac (@JackKennedy) August 4, 2025

Insane story:

Still waiting for more details but, as it stands

- Perryman is on the way to a gun range
- Cops pull him over on a traffic stop
- Somehow get permission/cause to search his car
- Find 3 handguns and 2 rifles in his trunk
- 2 rifles aren't compliant with California laws (he…

— Kenjac (@JackKennedy) August 4, 2025

• Yes:

Why do people feel entitled to buy other people's things at a time and price of their choosing? https://t.co/03vT6ou7Za

— pjeffa (????,????) (@jeff82874662) August 4, 2025