Our Chaos-Monkey, Dementia-Suffering, Cognitively-Addled President, & the Bureau of Labor Statistics
The day the economic-statistics numbers died: dementia-addled chaos-monkey Trump’s assault on statistical independence. A political purge of America’s economic thermometer is not good. Especially...
The day the economic-statistics numbers died: dementia-addled chaos-monkey Trump’s assault on statistical independence. A political purge of America’s economic thermometer is not good. Especially since Republican senators have decided to use Trump’s outburst to call for “BLS reform”. & so we watch the Bureau of Labor Statistics becomes the latest casualty in Trumpist America’s war on reality…
In a spectacle equal parts farce and tragedy, chao-monkey dementia-suffering cognitively-addled President Trump has sacked the nation’s chief labor statistician for reporting unwelcome numbers.
The integrity of America’s economic data is now gone. The United States just crossed a new Rubicon in the politicization of economic facts. When official data are recast as political liabilities rather than neutral facts, the consequences ripple outward: from financial markets to the Federal Reserve, from policymakers to the public. The episode underscores a deeper crisis—truth itself became a partisan casualty long ago, when the George W. Bush administration did its full-court press of lies on Iraq, if not before. And when truth itself became a partisan casualty democracy’s dashboard went dark.
Well! As of yesterday morning, I decided that is no longer sufficient to call Trump a chaos monkey. That does not describe him. The right dit escription is now. "dementia-addled chaos-monkey”:
Kevin M. Kruse: <https://bsky.app/profile/kevinmkruse.bsky.social/post/3lvb636dx4227>: ‘This past week, the 79-year-old president announced he’s ended six wars (some that have been going on for centuries), asserted that windmills drive whales insane, called for Beyoncé to be prosecuted, claimed Obama committed treason and complained a convicted pedophile “stole” teenage girls from him… July 31, 2025 at 5:44 AM…
As of today, the economic statistics reported by the United States government are no longer reliable:
Donald Trump: ‘I was just informed that our Country's "Jobs Numbers" are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala's chances of Victory. This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records - No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. 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. McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative. The Economy is BOOMING under “TRUMP" despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting "Kamala" elected - How did that work out? Jerome "Too Late" Powell should also be put "out to pasture." Thank you for your attention to this…
If I were J.D. Vance I would invoke the 25th Amendment immediately. Every hour that he delays magnifies his manifest unfitness for his current, or any office whatsoever.
It will be interesting to see how or if they try to walk this back over the weekend.
Who on his “Team” did Trump direct to fire BLS Commissioner McEntarfer? What did they say in response? Is a public tweet enough? If so, does the public tweet have to be in the present tense—“I direct”? After all, when Trump says “I have directed” he could then say afterwards that he had been lying.
Does someone in the White House actually have to tell Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer? Does that person have to be Trump, personally? In person, by phone call, or in writing? And how does the Labor Secretary then proceed?
And why are Senators Susan Collins and Bill Cassidy now demanding that the BLS postpone its real-time employment data for a month, so that the July survey estimate would come out not on the first Friday of August but the first Friday of September?
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My fall semester starts three weeks from Monday, including a section of intro macro.
I've recently increased the emphasis I place on the government's role in providing various public goods, from infrastructure to the kind of information produced by the BLS.
I don't want to accuse Our Host of naïveté, but this move is a rational one in the authoritarian playbook. It's not at all addled, by fascist lights. It's all of a piece with the news item this week that Trump is planning to interview all people up from promotion to senior general post--presumably after Hegseth has vetted for gender and color.
My fall semester starts three weeks from Monday, including a section of intro macro.
I've recently increased the emphasis I place on the government's role in providing various public goods, from infrastructure to the kind of information produced by the BLS.
Here's a depressing teachable moment.
I don't want to accuse Our Host of naïveté, but this move is a rational one in the authoritarian playbook. It's not at all addled, by fascist lights. It's all of a piece with the news item this week that Trump is planning to interview all people up from promotion to senior general post--presumably after Hegseth has vetted for gender and color.