Cooking the books? Fears Trump could target statisticians if data disappoints

[alwaysinasnit]

Proposed rule change could pave way for president to fire economists whose figures prove politically inconvenient

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/18/trump-statisticians-economy-figures

snip...

A proposed rule change making it easier to fire civil servants deemed to be “intentionally subverting presidential directives” could pave the way for the White House to fire statisticians employed to produce objective data on the economy but whose figures prove politically inconvenient, experts warn.

Statistics released by agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) are used by the Federal Reserve Bank to set inflation policy and interest rates. They also form the basis on which businesses and investors take decisions.

The US’s global reputation as a stable economic power and a reliable partner goes hand-in-hand with its long history of producing accurate data, dating back to the establishment of the BLS in 1884. Interfere with the latter and you risk sacrificing the former, experts warn.

But with Trump under pressure to explain shrinking gross domestic product (GDP) figures amid economists’ warnings that tariffs could trigger a recession, the administration could use new employment rules to pressure workers into “cooking the books”.

snip...

[Ocelot II]

1. Of course he'll cook the books. I wouldn't trust any numbers coming out of that shit show.

[Demovictory9]

2. Omg

[JoseBalow]

3. Is this satire?

Fears? More like expectations.

[Lovie777]

4. Yes shithole is cooking the books...............

[doc03]

5. When unemployment was like less than 5% when Obama was president he claimed it was 25% or

more. You can bet he will cook the books. With all the tariffs inflation goes down bullshit.

[Xolodno]

6. Lot of that data is used by Econ...

...students while going through college.

However, there are other sources, IMF, etc. that will not yield to him. So it won't work.

[alwaysinasnit]

7. It won't work with normal, rational, thinking people but I imagine it will work just fine with tsf's

supporters.