On Friday, Donald Trump fired the head of the federal government’s Bureau of
Labor Statistics.

Why did this self-professed “very stable genius” fire the nonpartisan economist
who runs one of the country’s most important statistical agencies?

Because her department had the temerity to issue its monthly jobs report — as it has done every month for the past 100
years, under Democratic and Republican administrations — which included updates
to previous reports, as is routine.

Not surprisingly, there has been a major drop-off in hiring in the wake of the
Trump regime’s policy chaos and economic mismanagement, including its absurd and
ongoing tariff saga. So — like any would-be tyrant who gets news he doesn’t like
— Trump is (metaphorically) shooting the messenger.

As I told the national media over the weekend:

“The threat to the integrity of the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the trusted
source of objective, factual information about the state of the economy — will
undermine not just public understanding but evidence-based policymaking
altogether. Trump is undermining the interests of the United States and leaving
us a weaker and more vulnerable nation.”

It’s worth remembering that Trump tried something similar at the outset of the
COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that somehow Americans wouldn’t be dying by the
thousands if we just stopped counting the deaths.

In George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , the brutal authoritarian regime — through deprivation, propaganda, and
torture — can make people believe that two plus two equals five.

Apparently, Donald Trump thinks he is Big Brother and we are all idiots.

A very simple message for Donald Trump:
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Two plus two is four. Not five. Not whatever else you want it to be. You can try
to keep firing experts for doing their jobs. But if you think the American
people are going to let you Big Brother us into two plus two equals five, well,
you’ve got another doublethink coming.
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- Robert Weissman, Co-President of Public Citizen


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