The America we knew is slipping away: NYT
4 Min Read
US President Donald Trump's dismissal of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics has sparked concerns over political interference in economic data and eroded trust in government institutions.
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File photo shows the US Treasury Department building in Washington on June 8, 2017. (AP)
In what observers are calling one of the most alarming acts of his presidency, Donald Trump on Friday fired Erika McEntarfer, the Senate-confirmed head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), after she delivered economic data that contradicted his administration’s narrative.
In an opinion piece published in the New York Times (NYT), Thomas L. Friedman states that the decision has triggered fears that the Trump administration is undermining the independence and credibility of one of the US government's most trusted statistical agencies. The move came just hours after the release of a revised jobs report that downgraded employment growth figures for May and June.
Friedman argued that instead of defending McEntarfer, senior Trump administration officials appeared to support the firing. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who had earlier told Bloomberg TV that "we’ve seen positive job growth," quickly shifted tone after the dismissal, writing on X, "I agree wholeheartedly with @POTUS that our jobs numbers must be fair, accurate, and never manipulated for political purposes."
The abrupt change prompted The Wall Street Journal to question whether the "positive" numbers touted that morning were suddenly being cast as untrustworthy by evening. "So were the jobs data that were ‘positive’ in the morning rigged by the afternoon?" the Journal asked.
Cabinet officials remain silent, backfire
The piece mentioned that instead of challenging the president, key economic advisers and cabinet members remained silent or backed the decision. These include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett, Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, all of whom reportedly took no action to intervene.
Observers warn that this silence sets a dangerous precedent. "How will anyone in the future trust that office when it issues good news?" critics have asked, emphasizing the long-term damage to institutional credibility.
On the other hand, Bill Blain, a London-based bond analyst, captured international reaction in his widely followed newsletter, Blain’s Morning Porridge. He wrote, "Friday, Aug. 1 might go down in history as the day the US Treasury market died... If you can’t trust the data, what can you trust?" He imagined a future shaped by manipulated government narratives: "Payrolls data from the Ministry of Truth, a subsidiary of Truth Social, show full employment across America..."
Intelligence, Cybersecurity officials purged
According to the NYT, the dismissal of McEntarfer is not an isolated incident. In May, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired two senior intelligence officials who had authored an assessment disputing Trump's claims that the Venezuelan government was directing the gang Tren de Aragua.
According to the report, that assessment had challenged the administration's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected gang members without due process.
Most recently, Jen Easterly, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and a West Point graduate, had her appointment to teach at the US Military Academy revoked. The move followed a social media post by far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer labeling Easterly a Biden-era mole.
Easterly responded on LinkedIn, "I’ve worked my entire career not as a partisan, but as a patriot, not in pursuit of power, but in service to the country I love and in loyalty to the Constitution I swore to protect and defend, against all enemies."
She offered a message to West Point cadets, "The Cadet Prayer... asks that we ‘choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.’ That line... has been my North Star... The harder right is never easy. That’s the whole point."
Moreover, critics argue that the Trump administration is systematically replacing expertise and independence with loyalty and political obedience. Friedman mentioned that former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen commented on the BLS firing, "This is the kind of thing you would only expect to see in a banana republic."
With cabinet officials failing to push back against these firings and institutional norms increasingly ignored, economists, analysts, and public servants alike fear that the consequences of these actions will be long-lasting, he argued. Additionally, as one analyst put it, if this behavior continues over Trump’s full term, "the America you know will be gone, and I don’t know how we will get it back."
