Trump Moves To Silence Economic Truth After Jobs Report Exposes Tariff Damage
Job growth hit post-pandemic lows. Rather than own the consequences of his tariffs, Trump is emulating foreign authoritarians by firing the chief labor statistician for simply sharing accurate data.
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On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its July jobs report, revealing that job growth was lower than expected, and gains for the months of May and June faced staggering downward revisions.
May’s job numbers were revised down by 125,000, from +144,000 to +19,000, and June was revised down by 133,000, from +147,000 to +14,000. July’s 73,000 numbers are also weaker than expected. Overall, job numbers in May and June were revised a combined total of 258,000 lower than previously reported.
These numbers were remarkable and flew in the face of the Trump Administration’s narrative that the U.S. economy was weathering the uncertainty and direct impact of his reckless tariff strategy.
In spite of President Trump’s claims that his tariffs will jump-start manufacturing in the U.S., manufacturing jobs saw a decline in July. It’s healthcare that is the driving growth force in the job market. These numbers were stunning and revealed that Trump oversaw the weakest 3-month period of job growth since the pandemic, and before that, the Great Recession.
These numbers were so bad that Trump took to Truth Social, announcing that he was firing Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) operates independently within the Department of Labor, producing nonpartisan data. Trump has previously praised job reports from the BLS when the numbers fit his narrative of a growing economy. But, of course, when the numbers tell a different story, he is now falsely claiming the numbers are cooked and calling them a “scam.”
Erika McEntarfer responded to her firing in a gracious post on Bluesky:
Former BLS commissioners from both parties have released a statement condemning McEntarfer’s firing:
“We call on Congress to respond immediately, to investigate the factors that led to Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal, to strongly urge the Commissioner’s continued service, and ensure that the nonpartisan integrity of the position is retained… This rationale for firing Dr McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers.”
William Beach, the BLS commissioner appointed by Trump during his first term, was among those who signed the above joint statement. Beach went even further, declaring in a post that Trump’s move “sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau.” Beach also went on CNN and directly debunked Trump’s claims that these numbers were rigged:
“There’s no way for that to happen. The commissioner doesn’t do anything to collect the numbers. The commissioner doesn’t see the numbers until Wednesday before they’re published. 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.”
Beach is right. This sets a dangerous precedent. But it also fits into a wider pattern with President Trump. Anyone in Trump’s Administration who dares to tell the truth gets punished or ousted.
We’ll break down the danger of this Orwellian, authoritarian move and the cautionary tales of other countries that have fired statisticians in an effort to cook economic numbers favorable to them. But first, we need to talk about this economy and why it’s causing Trump to panic.
In reality, these job numbers are only one signal of a broader weakening economy. The labor market is softening. Growth is slowing. Inflation persists.
Abundance author
detailed the indicators of a U.S. economy slipping toward a recession in his latest article:noted in his latest article for that Black unemployment is surging and inflation remains persistent:While Trump messes with the BLS, the US economy is showing strains of weakness. Outside of the pandemic, the unemployment rate for college graduates over 25 is rising fast and is higher now than any year since 2014; job growth in the past three months is the lowest since 2010; and spending on services has declined for three straight months for the first time since 2008. How are companies, individuals, and the government supposed to deal with an economy slipping toward recession if we’re smashing the tools we need to know how fast we’re falling? In a tempest, it’s unwise to ransack the navigation system.
“The overall unemployment rate last month ticked up to 4.2 percent, but more worrying is the increase in Black unemployment to 7.2 percent. That’s the highest rate since December 2021, when the economy was still struggling to emerge from the COVID pandemic… Current inflation indicators are all bad. The personal consumption price index has prices rising 0.3 percent from May to June, which means they’ve risen 2.6 percent from last year.”
The data speaks for itself. The picture being painted is clear. Trump won in 2024 after promising to lower costs and boost the economy, but his actions have had the opposite effect. This is why his approval ratings are tanking. Firing the BLS Commissioner does nothing to change what’s happening on the ground in the U.S. economy.
Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett sought to defend the firing, appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, claiming that the revisions were “hard evidence” that the data was rigged. No, the revisions are not hard evidence of rigged data. Revisions in job numbers have occurred since the BLS began publishing monthly employment data in 1915.
Instead of dealing with the world as it is, reckoning with the damage Trump’s tariffs have caused, and offering up a coherent strategy to strengthen the economy, the Trump Administration is unleashing a tantrum of lies and an authoritarian suppression of facts. No serious person is buying these distortions. This just makes Trump look weak and autocratic.
The New York Times agrees that Trump’s moves are inherently authoritarian, publishing an article from their Chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker, on Sunday with an unmistakable headline: “Trump’s Efforts to Control Information Echo an Authoritarian Playbook.” The article was really well done, accurately comparing Trump’s suppression of truth to other authoritarian leaders:
“Don’t like an intelligence report that contradicts your view? Go after the analysts. Don’t like cost estimates for your tax plan? Invent your own. Don’t like a predecessor’s climate policies? Scrub government websites of underlying data. Don’t like a museum exhibit that cites your impeachments? Delete any mention of them…
The message, however, was unmistakable: Government officials who deal in data now fear they have to toe the line or risk losing their jobs…
The Soviets falsified data to make their economy look stronger than it was. The Chinese have long been suspected of doing the same. Just three years ago, Turkey’s autocratic leader fired his government’s statistics chief after a report documented rocketing inflation.”
Trump's actions have also drawn comparisons to Argentina, showcasing the devastating outcome that obfuscating economic data produces.
New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro detailed what this could lead to in a post on X:
“I covered Argentina as a foreign correspondent under leftist president Kirshner and so much of what I’m seeing here reminds me of that period which saw the economy decimated with high inflation and stagnation due to tariffs and other measures.
But what worries me the most is our president firing the folks who do our economic data. In Argentina during that period, they stopped giving verifiable numbers. You were either a ‘government economist’ ie lying or an ‘independent economist’ who was called an anti government rat.
Once economic data becomes unreliable or politicized, things really break down. In Argentina, they ended up with runaway inflation, a banking crisis and a political crisis. It’s not a left or right issue.”
Another cautionary tale lies in Greece. New York Times Chief Economics Correspondent Ben Casselman detailed this in an excellent piece:
“There is the case of Greece, where the government faked deficit numbers for years, contributing to a debilitating debt crisis that required multiple rounds of bailouts. The country then criminally prosecuted the head of the statistical agency when he insisted on reporting the true figures, further eroding the country’s international standing.”
Accurate data is essential to a thriving and free society. Without a commonly agreed-upon set of facts, we are lost. How can Americans, investors, and companies make informed decisions if they can’t trust the information coming from their own government? How can allies of the U.S. make economic decisions if the most important economy in the world starts creating fabricated data to ease the ego of its wannabe authoritarian leader?
It’s not the BLS and its latest jobs report that could cause this crisis of trust. It’s President Trump and his attacks on truth.
What’s happening here is bigger than one jobs report or even one statistician. It’s a blinking red warning sign. When leaders attack truth to protect their power, democratic institutions weaken—and so does the public’s ability to respond to real crises. Trump’s firing of the BLS commissioner isn’t just an authoritarian impulse—it’s a deliberate effort to blur reality itself.
Americans deserve accurate data, honest leadership, and a president who can face economic challenges without silencing the people telling the truth.
Excellent wrap up of this awful situation, Ahmed. I had read the Peter Baker piece and found it very helpful also. I do find the NYTimes to still be a reliable source of news. Keep up your good work.