Trump Fires BLS Chief, American Eagle Defends Sweeney Ads, LA Wildfires Funds Stalled: AM Update 8/4

0:00To realize the future America needs, we understand what's needed from us. To face each threat head on. We've earned our place in the fight for our nation's future. We are Marines. We were made for this. Good morning, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. It's Monday, August 4th, 2025, and this is your AM Update. We either got incompetence or we got partisanship. And either way, it was absolutely appropriate for President Trump to clean house. President Trump fires his Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner following several dramatic jobs report revisions, citing the need for objectivity and trust. American Eagle doubles down on its Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans ad campaign, despite intensely negative reactions from many on the crazy left.

0:52I said, how do people apply for it? And he said, people don't apply for it. it's going to nonprofits. This is not for individuals. Months after the massive celebrity benefit concert for LA wildfire victims, many locals are wondering, where's the money? All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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2:38President Trump firing the Biden-appointed Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erica McInturfer on Friday in the wake of a soft jobs report. The latest report announcing 73 ,000 new jobs in July, about 27 ,000 fewer than expected. And crucially, the report included yet another downward revision on May and June jobs numbers by a combined total of 258 ,000 jobs lost, the steepest monthly downward revision to U.S. jobs growth since May 2020. This latest revision won in a series of large monthly and annual adjustments sparked by the COVID pandemic, which contributed to delayed reporting. In August 2024, an annual revision showing the bureau had overstated the number of jobs created by the Biden administration from March 2023 to March 2024 by more than 800 ,000 over a 12-month period.

3:32President Trump announcing the firing on Friday in a pair of scathing Truth Social posts. The first reading in part, quote, I was just informed that our country's jobs numbers are being produced by a Biden appointee, Dr. Erica McInturfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, who faked the job numbers before the election to try and boost Kamala's chances of victory. This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the jobs growth in March 2024 and then again right before the 2024 presidential election. No one can be that wrong with a question mark. We need accurate jobs numbers. I have directed my team to fire this Biden political appointee immediately.

4:13From the follow-up post, quote, in my opinion, today's jobs numbers were rigged in order to make the Republicans and me look bad. Democrats decrying the ouster calling it dangerous. Former director of President Obama's National Economic Council, Larry Summers, Sunday on ABC This Week. This is the stuff of democracies giving way to authoritarianism. Firing statisticians goes with threatening the heads of newspapers. It goes with launching assaults on universities. It goes with launching assaults on law firms that defend clients that the elected boss finds uncongenial. this is really scary stuff.

5:03Sunday on CNN, the former Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner nominated under Trump 1.0 William Beach criticizing the firing. The commissioner doesn't do anything to collect the numbers. By the time the commissioner sees the numbers, they're all prepared. They're locked into the computer system. The only thing the commissioner does on Wednesday is to kind of do the edits on the text. Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, on NBC, saying the data collection process has long been flawed and has dramatically worsened since COVID. What we've seen over the last few years is massive revisions to the jobs numbers.

5:40In fact, they were extremely reliable, the kind of numbers that you want to guide policy decisions and markets through COVID. And then when COVID happened, because response rates went down a lot, then revision rates skyrocketed so that the typical monthly revision often was bigger than the number itself. And now we had a number that just came out. The actual number for the month wasn't so bad, but the two months before were revised down by more than it ever happened since 1968. And in 2015, Alan Greenspan and I were asked to attend a conference at BLS. And we warned that if they didn't try to let the data collection and calculation keep up with the data that was happening in the economy, that we would have problems like this.

6:26White House Senior Counselor Peter Navarro, Saturday on Bloomberg's Balance of Power podcast, saying the current trend of large revisions undermines the perception of objectivity and trust. Let me just say this. Since the pandemic, we've been getting the numbers spectacularly wrong. I mean, the variance in the numbers dramatically increased after COVID. So we either got incompetence or we got partisanship. And either way, it was absolutely appropriate for President Trump to clean house at the BLS. We need people to give us numbers. And the reason why it matters is if we don't get the right numbers, then we're not going to make the right decisions, particularly at the Fed.

7:11Deputy Commissioner William Wiatrowski will serve as acting commissioner until a replacement is selected. On Saturday, American Eagle doubling down on its Sidney Sweeney ad campaign. My jeans are blue. Sidney Sweeney has her jeans. The campaign igniting a firestorm among some leftists, many expressing deep disgust that the retailer would feature an unapologetically beautiful blonde woman with white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. The horror! To market their product and use the double entendre about great genes. The ad campaign prompting an outpouring of criticism, including accusations of endorsing racism, promoting eugenics, and celebrating Nazism.

7:56On Saturday, despite the intense public pressure, American Eagle remaining unbowed, posting this text graphic to social media. Quote,

8:20By the way, jeans in all of those comments was spelled with a J. Friday on the Ruthless podcast, Vice President J.D. Vance weighing in, saying the outcry is a boost to the GOP. My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sidney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi. That appears to be their actual strategy. I mean, it actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems, though, which is that you have like a normal all-American beautiful girl doing like a normal jeans ad. Right. They're trying to sell, you know, sell jeans to kids in America. And they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing.

9:01And it's like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election? Like, I actually thought that one of the lessons they might take is we're going to be less crazy. The lesson they have apparently taken is we're going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sidney Sweeney is beautiful. Great strategy, guys. That's how you're going to win the midterm, especially young American men. Yesterday, American Eagle continuing its campaign on its Instagram account, posting blue jeans for summer Sundays with a new image of Sweeney. The top comment cheering the company for, quote, trolling the crybabies.

9:36In January of this year, fueled by near hurricane force winds and bone dry terrain, the Eaton Fire in Altadena and the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades devoured everything in their paths, homes, businesses, memories. In days, entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. The staggering toll, more than 18 ,000 structures damaged or destroyed, mostly homes. 31 lives were lost and tens of thousands were displaced, the damage standing at an estimated$250 billion. On January 31st, dozens of Hollywood's biggest stars turning out for Fire Aid, a benefit concert hosted across two venues, featuring performances from Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, and more.

10:24Celebrities urging viewers to donate to the cause and promising that direct relief would go to those impacted by the fires. All the money that's raised will go directly to people who need help in the short term and for the long term effort to get this city back on its feet. Everyone, please go to FireAidLA.org and give what you can. All of the money raised will go directly to people who need it now. 100 % of the money goes to short-term relief and long-term efforts to rebuild. The event raising an estimated$100 million. In the weeks that followed, FireAid hailed as a triumph of celebrity-driven charity.

11:06But months later, many locals were asking the same question. Where's the money? Fox 11 Los Angeles speaking to some survivors. And I was actually expecting to some type of reach out or something to let us know that we're here to help you. And I've been searching and trying to figure that out since. I have not seen any benefit from the fire aid money. They're my friends and neighbors. We spoke to independent journalist Sue Pascoe, editor of Circling the News, who started digging after a reader reached out with a simple question. How do I apply for help? Someone in the Palisades emailed me and said, how do we apply for this aid?

11:45Someone who had lost her home. I said, I don't know. So let me call the Annenberg, who was supposedly sort of in charge of the sort of the grant process. And I called and I called and finally someone got back and said, oh, you need to talk to the media spokesperson for fire aid. So I called Chris Wallace, who's a media spokesperson, and I said, how do people apply for it? And he said, people don't apply for it. It's going to nonprofits. This is not for individuals. That revelation shocking Pascoe, as the concert had been promoted as direct relief for victims. Pascoe began following the money, finding some grant recipients appearing to have little to no connections to fire relief.

12:29Supposedly, there are more than 100 that got the money. There are some that clean preschool bathrooms. They got money. There are all these food organizations, many whom I've never heard of before, that got money, mixed in with some very reputable ones. Then there was money that went to L.A. City Foundations. There was money that went to L.A. County. There was money that went to the Native California Voter Organization. There's a bunch more that went to immigrants for whatever reason. There is some nonprofits that you could go onto the website. and you can just click on and you just go, you know, they're not even based in Los Angeles.

13:11How is this money going to the victims? Pascoe's reporting generating significant media traction. President Trump posting to Truth Social 10 days after Pascoe appeared on Fox 11 LA to share her findings, calling fire aid, quote, a total disaster and, quote, another Democrat-inspired scam. Fire aid responding that it does not have the capability to make direct payments to individuals, and that was never the plan, it says. Posting a lengthy response on its website, reading in part, quote, there has been an increasing amount of misinformation being shared online about the distribution of fire aid funds.

13:46Together, we raised an estimated 100 million that have been designated for direct relief and will not be used for administrative purposes. Under frequently asked questions, fire aid writing, quote, does fire aid award grants to individuals directly? The answer, quote, yes, through local nonprofits and organizations. In other words, no. FireAid saying it hired law firm Latham and Watkins to conduct a comprehensive review of the governance and grant making process, so far dispersing$75 million, it says, to 160 organizations, including food banks, community groups, and disaster relief. The organization also noting each grant recipient was first checked out by Goldman Sachs' GS Donor-Advised Philanthropy Fund to ensure its good standing, which doesn't mean they sent the money to fire victims.

14:40Recipients will be required to report on fund usage by December, those results set to be audited by KPMG. Pascoe agrees some legitimate groups received funds, but she argues that's not the point. The concert was marketed as direct relief for families who lost everything. Their website now says we have to stop all this misinformation that's going about. We never said it was going to be for victims. Well, yes, you did. All the performers said it was going to be for victims. And they've hired a law firm now to defend them against all this misinformation. information. Well, no, just give the money to the victims.

15:18And they say, well, we are not equipped to do that. Well, why not? The Red Cross did it. The Red Cross gave everyone impacted by the fire here, and I believe in Altadena, some money. Why couldn't they do that? Why couldn't they give cash to the victims? There's no reason. Pascoe also challenging fire aides claimed that none of the money was spent on administrative fees. But here's another thing that most people don't know about nonprofits. Say you want to start a nonprofit, it takes you about anywhere between six months and a year to get a number. And if you don't have a number, you can go to either Community Partners or California Community Foundation.

15:56They will share their number with you so you can use it to apply for aid. And then you give them an 8 % administrative fee. And then you have a number. And to apply, there are only six questions that they asked. What's your nonprofit's name? What's your nonprofit's number? Where are you based? And what have you done to help fire victims? I'm sure everyone was a nonprofit, but the bottom line was this was supposed to be, it was marketed for victims. It was marketed for the survivors of people who lived in Altadena, people who lived in the Palisades who lost everything. It was marketed for them and they received nothing.

16:37Pasco reached out to several of the organizations on the list of recipients, saying the vast majority never replied to her. I actually send out a little questionnaire to 20 of the some hundred odd. I don't have a large staff. It's basically me. I send out a questionnaire just asking, Hi, when was your nonprofit formed? How did you spend the money? And is there anything else you would like to highlight about, you know, the good works that you've done? I got two replies. One was from a very sweet organization that talked about how they had helped an individual in Altadena and asked how they had helped people in the Palisades.

17:17They said they didn't help people in the Palisades. Then I got another response from someone who said, take me off your mailing list. And then and I got no more responses. Pascoe saying accountability is going to have to come in the form of an investigation. I think it's going to have to come from some attorney general or someone who's going to have to ask for an accounting or take some legal steps. I mean, I think I've exposed that victims didn't get the fire aid. It was marketed as for victims and it was marketed incorrectly. It was sort of like sold a false bill of advertising almost. And I think that's got to come from some sort of legal source.

17:59We reached out to Attorney General Rob Bonta's office in California for comment, receiving no reply. In July, Republican Congressman from California, Kevin Kiley, sending a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting she investigate. So far, the DOJ has not responded. Wired reports that some 11 ,000 home dwellings were destroyed in the fires. As of early July, less than 200 homeowners have received permits to rebuild. And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for The Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly, and on all podcast platforms.

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