Trump’s firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief over baseless data claims follows a familiar pattern
On Aug. 1, President Donald Trump took a step many economists had feared: firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nonpartisan agency that collects a wide range of closely watched employment and price data. Trump said the commissioner is politically biased against him.
“I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to bureau Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden. “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”
The stakes are high for having statistical purity. Presidential approval ratings rise and fall based on key measurements such as the unemployment rate, new job creation and the consumer price index — all of which are calculated solely or partly by BLS. And countless transactions also depend on those calculations, including those by financial traders, private businesses, international trading partners and individual Americans’ stock market holdings.
“The U.S. is really known as the gold star of statistical agencies around the world,” Tara Sinclair, a George Washington University economist, said in March during a panel discussion about ensuring the quality of U.S. statistics. “We have this anchored expectation of quality data coming out of the U.S.,” she said. Panel attendees expressed worry about political pressure being brought to bear on agencies like BLS.
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