Trump’s rewriting of reality on jobs numbers is chilling, but it could backfire
When authoritarianism encroaches, apologists often present a strongman’s power grabs as rational — even imperative for the national good.
Top Trump administration aides followed that playbook on Sunday, justifying the president’s abrupt firing of the government’s top labor official in charge of employment statistics over jobs numbers that dented his proclamation of a new “golden age.”
But the ouster of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, taken alongside President Donald Trump’s concurrent bid to destroy the independence of the Federal Reserve, threatens the US economy’s reputation as a bulwark of stability and integrity that has undergirded generations of prosperity.
Such political interference might bolster Trump’s ever-growing power. But it could backfire by eroding the trust of investors, companies and organizations that depend on accurate and truthful statistics on the economy’s health to make major decisions that can impact the lives of millions of people. Even the Federal Reserve uses it to decide on monetary policy.
