Donald Trump’s contentious decision to fire the U.S. statistics chief has done little to stem an economic slump, with the latest jobs report showing only 22,000 jobs were added in August - well below expectations. One month after Trump sacked the Bureau of Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in response to weak job numbers, the unemployment rate rose to 4.3 per cent, the highest since 2021.
What does this really mean though?
The same could be said of any democratic institution, of course the director doesn’t have any way to influence the reporting they produce because it’s all supposed to be transparent and reliable.
In reality though, in the Trump admin, they can absolutely manipulate the numbers in a myriad of ways.