The gravity of the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to fire Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the country’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), following the release of the July 2025 jobs report, should not be underestimated.
Some might view the firing as a minor incident. However, for those of us who come from countries where political interference in public data is or has been a constant for years, the firing signals an ominous turn for the U.S.
What Trump said to justify McEntarfer’s dismissal
In a post on his Truth Social account on August 1, 2025, Trump claimed that McEntarfer had “falsified” job figures ahead of the 2024 presidential election to “boost Kamala [Harris]’s chances of winning.” In another post the same day, the president said that the July jobs report numbers were “rigged to make Republicans and me look bad.”
There is no evidence that the former commissioner falsified or manipulated these figures, now or in the past – and Trump didn’t provide any either. The July 2025 jobs report Trump referred to showed 73,000 new jobs were added that month, which was below expectations, and it revised employment numbers down by 258,000 for June and May of this year.
The BLS is an independent agency that publishes monthly employment reports based on data collected through surveys conducted with thousands of households, businesses, and government agencies. Figures may be later revised, as outlined in the BLS Handbook of Methods. (Notably, revisions are not uncommon.)
Revisions are made for two main reasons, according to the BLS: the collection of additional data – because “not all respondents” reply “in time for the preliminary estimate” or may “not have provided accurate data” – and seasonal adjustments.
When data is manipulated, disinformation wins
When those in power decide to replace the professionals who produce or deliver data they don’t like, the public loses. The right to know – or the right to information – is a fundamental human right essential for holding leaders accountable and exercising other rights, whether civil, economic, or social.
Latin America offers countless examples of data manipulation, not just from right-wing governments like Trump’s. In Argentina, my home country, the governments of Peronist leaders Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner interfered with the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) between 2007 and 2015. For several years, the INDEC stopped publishing crime statistics because violence had increased and the government preferred that people remained unaware. The inflation index also stopped being released, as inflation has always been a difficult issue to control in our country. Later, even poverty statistics were discontinued – because, according to those in power at the time, such figures were “discriminatory.”
The lack of vital statistics – and the political manipulation of them – directly affects the work of journalists, who rely on data as essential raw material to report and explain what is happening for their audiences.
It is also directly connected to the phenomenon of disinformation, whose promoters claim that facts either don’t exist or have little value. Every time a public data point is no longer professionally measured or ceases to be published, the forces behind the post-truth era gain ground – an era marked by the deliberate distortion of reality, where emotions and personal beliefs take precedence.
That is why, if we want to continue doing journalism – and defend democracy – standing up for data is part of our job.
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
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