US president claimed without evidence that Erika McEntarfer had ‘faked’ employment figures in the run-up to last year’s election

Donald Trump has ordered the firing of the federal government official in charge of labor statistics, hours after data revealed that jobs growth had stalled this summer.

The US president claimed that Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of labor statistics, had “faked” employment figures in the run-up to last year’s election, in a bid to boost Kamala Harris’s chances of victory.

He produced no evidence for this claim, and insisted that the US economy was, in fact, “booming” on his watch.