President Trump called in to speak with CNBC’s Joe Kernen on Tuesday morning to explain firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over big questions about last month’s jobs report:

JOE KERNEN: That was the biggest revision since 1968, Mr. President. So, we’re in the internet age, and we still can’t get any instant data. We’re still using snail mail to get the responses back. It is the government, after all-antiquated, no doubt, and certainly suboptimal. But rigged? Where do you get the notion that it’s rigged? Do you have any evidence there? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It is antiquated, but it’s also very political. And, you know, I had an election recently where I did very well-won every swing state, won the popular vote, won everything, all right? Won all the counties. I think 87% of the counties were Republican. That’s never happened before. And yet, I had to go through hell. Just days before the election, they put out numbers that made it look like the country was on fire-it was doing so well. And then they did a revision about two weeks later, and the revision was down by almost 900,000 jobs. You remember that? And I said, Man, what would’ve happened if I lost? Think of it-I would have said they gave phony numbers, and then they revised them a week and a half later. KERNEN: Those were benchmark numbers though, Mr. President. That happens. They do that twice a year, and it reconciles the monthly figures with the overall numbers. And it was a big number, obviously. TRUMP: Joe, the numbers were rigged. The numbers were rigged. 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. And you knew it wasn’t doing well. You knew prices were through the roof, and inflation was terrible. The whole thing was bad. But think of it-then they did the biggest revision, I think in history, of almost 900,000 jobs. And it turned out to be more than that, because later on, they did another revision. So they gave phony numbers in order to win the election. After I won the election (I said, Too big to rig). But after I won the election, they announced a downward number-in other words, to bring them back to reality. And I said, Wow. Supposing I would have lost-I would have blamed that. And people would’ve said I was a conspiracy theorist. You know, it’s crazy. KERNEN: Elaine Chao was on yesterday. She was labor secretary for eight years under Bush II, and she was your transportation secretary as well. She said, you know, the commissioner doesn’t really even get involved with the actual minutiae of putting all these things together. And there’s no way she could have chosen to rig these numbers to make them look bad. These are statistical changes based on an antiquated system. It’s a big leap to go to rigged. And then also, Mr. President, it makes anyone you pick-critics will say, Hey, he’s picking a guy or gal that’s going to give him the numbers he wants. So it undermines confidence in the system. You had, according to many people, all the rights in the world to try to replace the commissioner when it wasn’t getting any better-but that is maybe a bridge too far, according to most people. TRUMP: Well, I think when somebody says the commissioner is not involved-I don’t want to get into any arguments with anybody. Why should I? She’s a very nice woman. But when they say that nobody was involved-that it wasn’t political-give me a break. Look, before the election, I had this massive, massive outflow of beauty for Biden. I mean, he didn’t know he was alive. And for Biden, 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. Even if you look at the original ones from the other day, the numbers were very timid. Then they announced something that made them even more timid on top of it. Instead of a reporting day-I don’t know why-it just seemed a little bit more important than most times when they announced numbers. KERNEN: We talked earlier-the unemployment rate is still low. It’s 4.2%. TRUMP: The numbers before the election were earth-shattering. I’m not saying these were earth-shattering, but then they announced a couple of hundred thousand-to make it look a little bit worse from months before. I said, Where did those numbers come from? It’s a highly political situation. It’s totally rigged. Smart people know it. People with common sense know it. And a lot of people like to keep their head under the covers. KERNEN: Let’s move on to this: which number do you believe at this point? Because if you noticed, suddenly the chances of what you’ve wanted for months-and argued for months-the chances of a rate cut soared because of these numbers. Do you not believe the current numbers? Because they’re playing right into what you want the Fed and Jay Powell to do. They’re not horrible, as you said. But perhaps with the tariffs, some businesses delayed some spending. Some consumers may have been less certain about the future. So maybe we’re seeing a slight slowdown in labor. But you’re going to get exactly what you want based on these numbers. Which ones do you believe? Do you not believe the revised numbers either? TRUMP: It’s not what I want. I don’t want that. I wanted it a year ago. I wanted it a long time ago. Jay Powell is highly political. You know, I call him “Too Late” Jerome, “Too Late” Powell. He’s too late. He’s too late. Always. He always has been. Except when it came to lowering interest rates before the election-you know that he did. He worked that out. JOE KERNEN: Who would you replace him with? I know you watch the show occasionally, and we had an extended interview with one of the prospective replacements-Kevin Warsh. Were you watching that day? TRUMP: I was. He’s very-he’s very good. He’s very good. Sometimes, they’re all very good until you put them in there, and then they don’t do so good. But a lot of them-I think-I think he’s a very good guy. I think-I say Kevin and Kevin. Both Kevins are very good. And there are other people that are very good too. A lot of times they’re very good. Like this character we have in there now-Jerome Powell. He was very good. He said, Sir, I’ll keep interest rates so low. I’m a low interest rate person, sir. You could hardly hear him-talking over the desk. Somebody that worked for me was a big fan of him-not a fan of his, he hardly knew him-but he wanted him so badly. I did somebody a favor. I put him in there. No, he’s too late. He’s too late. That name will stick to him for always. KERNEN: Can you handicap it at all? Who you’re… You won’t know-when will you know? And when will you announce? TRUMP: The Two Kevins are doing well. And I have two other people that are doing well. Look, in the end, there are numerous people that are qualified. Everyone on your phone right now-in your beautiful studio-would be very qualified, in my opinion. You guys are better than most of the people that do it for a living. But I’ve watched. I’ve watched a lot, actually. No, I think that it’ll be one of four people.

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