There’s a parody of the famous poem, “First They Came For the Socialists.” It says, “Then they came for the journalists….and we don’t know what happened after that.” Today we saw Donald Trump come for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and he fired the woman whose only transgression was publishing real data. Real data is dangerous in this brave new world of Trump’s that we live in. You remember David Frum’s 2018 comment, which was considered so radical at the time? Frum said, “When conservatives realize that they cannot win democratically, they won’t abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.”
The Republican party is championing Trump’s rejection of democracy today. Make no mistake, we would not be here looking authoritarianism square in the eye but for the fact that so many Republicans completely lack the balls to stand up to this tyrant. They want him to take over America in a fascist coup. They want elections to stop. How else do you explain these reactions?
Sad. It takes a poor number to do this. Trump’s insecurities and authoritarianism will go far in harming American values…. Just wait for the tariff impact to ensure the GOP does not retain Congress. pic.twitter.com/wkourdt65s
— JP (@JPORiley1) August 1, 2025
Marshall joined 85 other senators to confirm McEntarfer last year, but today praised the wanna be dictator for firing her. And why might that be? Because an authoritarian coup which would leave him and others in office permanently would be so much easier than this elections nonsense every two, four, or six years. I don’t think that’s a cynical or a paranoid observation, I think it addresses the true *character* of this iteration of the GOP. Maybe some of the old timers like Barry Goldwater wouldn’t have gone along with this but today’s breed? Oh yeah.
“What does a bad leader do when they get bad news? Shoot the messenger,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech moments after Trump’s post. “That’s just what happened with the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
“Instead of helping people get good jobs, Donald Trump just fired the statistician who reported bad jobs data that the wanna-be king doesn’t like,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on X.
Other Democrats likened Trump’s demand to actions taken by totalitarian governments. New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich called the move “pure Soviet shit.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that oversees the Department of Labor, said Trump’s statement reminds him of “what authoritarians do.” Sanders is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats.
“Today’s jobs report shows what many Americans already knew: despite record highs in the stock market, the “economy” is not working for ordinary people,” Sanders wrote on X. “Rather than accept reality & try to address it, Trump chooses to fire the bearers of bad news.”
It’s amazing who decided to jump on this bandwagon and how fast.
Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, called for “somebody non-political” to replace McEntarfer.
“I’d like somebody that just put out the darn numbers,” he said in an interview on Friday. “All the numbers we get up here are all massaged because somebody has an agenda.”
Somebody’s got an agenda and his initials are DJT. And we’re going to see a lot of massaged numbers going forward. But fear not: labor statistics are a lot like double entry bookkeeping. You can see what’s happening on the other side, even if what’s going out of the BLS is being falsified. There are different unions, companies that build things, sales organizations, etc., who can help us get true figures. It’s pathetic to have to depend upon a work around of the federal government but here we are.
Of course the problem there will be that if the economy is actually falling apart and Trump has his appointed shill crowing about how wonderful it all is — with gigantic checks coming into the treasury from foreign countries and such — then there will be the inevitable clash. And when gas prices are sky high and it costs $5 to buy an avocado, or even more for tomatoes because they’re rotting in the field, mostly, because Trump scared off all the laborers, then what will Trump do or say?
We will find out. The man is unstable but as always, it is not just him. He’s got the GOP signed on to follow his worst impulses. We are truly on terra incognita now.
“There are different unions, companies that build things, sales organizations, etc., who can help us get true figures.”
Wow, some hope! I was looking for some!
It’s pathetic to have to depend upon a work around of the federal government but here we are.
True
I went to Congress.gov to check the confirmation vote, and at least Rick Scott’s being consistent as he was just one of the 8 GOP goobers who voted against McEnfarter’s nomination; the others were Crapo and Risch of Idaho, Cruz of Cancun–I mean Texas, Hawley and Schmitt of Missouri, Kennedy of Louisiana and Lee of Utah.
But, you wanna know some shocking YEA voters? Well, let’s start with J(ust) D(umbass) Vance (yeah, the guy who takes over if Drumpf keels over) for the biggie. But, also “Uncle Tim” Scott and “Little” Marco “I’m-lucky-I-haven’t-been-deported-yet-even-though-neither-of-my-parents-were-naturalized-US-citizens-when-I-was-born” Rubio and Tommy “I’m-as-dumb-as-a-ton-of-bricks” Tuberville and Marsha “I-wish-my-last-name-was-reversed” Blackburn and Joni “I-served-my-country-right-up-till-I-voted-to-approve-a-sexual-assailant-as-Sec-Def” Ernst and Tom “I-claimed-to-be-a-Ranger-despite-not-serving-with-the-real-Ranger-Regiment-and-then-denounced-my-service-record-being-used-as-a-political-attack-but-I-used-it-to-advance-my-own-career” Cotton.
The full vote was 86 Yeas (46-D, 38-R, 2-Ind) 8 Nays (all-R) and 6 Not voting (2-D, 3-R, 1-Ind).
Even Drumpf’s 2019 appointee, William Beach, called the firing groundless and “sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau.” (This piece of information comes from an ABC story on the firing–https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/erika-mcentarfer-bureau-labor-statistics-commissioner-fired-trump-124297038)
They really don’t like bad news, especially if it’s true! It might not be long before he sentences messengers bearing bad news to death, or at least exile.