President Trump said he ousted the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because the numbers produced by her agency were “rigged” to hurt him politically. Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Trump Fired America’s Economic Data Collector. History Shows the Perils.

Economists say unbiased data is essential for policymaking, and for democracy.

By Ben Casselman
Aug. 3, 2025

When President Trump didn’t like the weak jobs numbers that were released on Friday, he fired the person responsible for producing them. … It was a move with few precedents in the century-long history of economic statistics in the United States. And for good reason: When political leaders meddle in government data, it rarely ends well.

There is the case of Greece, where the government faked deficit numbers for years, contributing to a debilitating debt crisis that required multiple rounds of bailouts. The country then criminally prosecuted the head of the statistical agency when he insisted on reporting the true figures, further eroding the country’s international standing. … There is the case of China, where earlier this century the local authorities manipulated data to hit growth targets mandated by Beijing, forcing analysts and policymakers to turn to alternative measures to gauge the state of the country’s economy.

Perhaps most famously, there is the case of Argentina, which in the 2000s and 2010s systematically understated inflation figures to such a degree that the international community eventually stopped relying on the government’s data. That loss of faith drove up the country’s borrowing costs, worsening a debt crisis that ultimately led to it defaulting on its international obligations.

It is too soon to know whether the United States is on a similar path. But economists and other experts said that Mr. Trump’s decision on Friday to fire Erika McEntarfer, the Senate-confirmed head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was a troubling step in that direction. … Janet L. Yellen, the former Treasury secretary and chair of the Federal Reserve, said the firing was not what is expected from the most advanced economy in the world. … “This is the kind of thing you would only expect to see in a banana republic,” Ms. Yellen said.

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Ben Casselman is the chief economics correspondent for The Times. He has reported on the economy for nearly 20 years.

A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 4, 2025, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump’s Bid To Tilt Data Carries Perils. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe