Rumor has it that Trump is prepared to start firing more people at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and start putting in his own people who will publish fake numbers that make the economy look better. As folks may recall, he fired the BLS Commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, when the July jobs report showed job growth had slowed to a trickle. Now that the August report confirmed this situation, Trump is apparently looking to go further and undermine the agency’s integrity. 

Given Trump’s disrespect for reality, it is not surprising that after an August jobs report showing job growth has virtually ceased, wage growth has slowed, and a rising unemployment rate, he would look to attack the data. However, this would be an incredibly reckless act even by Trumpian standards.

BLS and the other economic statistical agencies have established themselves as the gold standard, putting out data of unquestioned integrity for more than a century. No prior president ever felt the need to doctor the data to conceal the failure of their economic performance.

Trump lives in a world of lies and surrounds himself with liars. He apparently intends to make the statistical agencies produce data that corresponds to his make-believe world, where jobs are plentiful, prices are falling, and gas costs less than $2.00 a gallon. 

Trump’s fake data cannot conceal the economic reality. It will not create jobs, slow inflation, and give us cheap gas. But it will confuse the situation and make it harder to talk clearly about the state of the economy. Apparently, generating confusion is the best Trump thinks he can do in terms of creating a strong economy.