A Firing at the Labor Department & Musk’s $29B in Tesla Shares 8/4/25

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, News, Investing, Business

4.2 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ ? minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday, after the agency reported a weak jobs report for the month of July. In the aftermath, the White House’s National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett discusses the decision and the concerned backlash it prompted. Elaine Chao served as Labor Secretary for eight years under President George W. Bush; she explains how BLS reports are calculated and shared with the public, and she underscores the importance of integrity in the agency. CNBC’s Steve Liesman and Rick Santelli debate the impact this jobs report has had on the markets as well as what it means for the larger economy. Plus, Tesla has awarded Elon Musk $29 billion worth of Tesla shares, and shares of Berkshire Hathaway dipped after the company reported lower-than-expected earnings. Kevin Hassett - 19:20 Rick Santelli and Steve Liesman - 34:13 Elaine Chao - 39:42 In this episode: Steve Liesman, @steveliesman Rick Santelli, @RickSantelli Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Katie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	bring in show music please
0:02.5	hi i'm cnbc producer katie kramer today on squawk pod
0:08.4	did you spend an august weekend thinking about statistics most of washington did after
0:14.9	president trump fired the chief of the bureau of labor statistics when he didn't like the
0:19.2	friday jobs number kevin hasett joins us from the White House.
0:22.6	I thought they had to be a typo or something. You probably thought so, too.
0:26.1	The National Economic Council Director on where the administration goes after a firing that seems
0:31.5	to many to be politically motivated.
0:33.9	But I think it's really important now that we've got a fresh set of eyes over there to try to
0:37.8	modernize the labor data.
0:39.6	And former Labor Secretary Elaine Chow says the data collection process can be improved,
0:45.7	but she stands by the department's integrity and she oversaw it for eight years.
0:49.5	There were months in which I didn't like the numbers, in which the White House didn't like the numbers,
0:54.5	but we basically never thought of it as, you know, somehow that it was not prepared correctly.
0:59.7	Plus the huge payday for the world's richest man, Elon Musk gets his 29 billion at Tesla.
1:06.7	Waited for the first trillion dollar company.
1:08.7	I'm still waiting for the first trillion dollar individual and people are saying could come as easily as 2027. It's Monday, August 4th,
1:17.2	2025. Squawk pod begins right now. Stand back you by in three, two, one. Cure, please.
1:25.8	Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squackbox right here on CNBC.
1:29.7	We're live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square.
1:32.4	I'm Becky Quick, along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin.
1:35.7	President Trump saying he's going to announce a new head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics this week.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CNBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CNBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.