How Trump is reshaping government data

Meteorological data collected by some weather balloons has been halted.

Meteorological data collected by some weather balloons has been halted. Statistics for HIV among transgender people were scrubbed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. And basic public figures, like how many people work for the federal government, have been frozen or delayed for months.

Across the federal government, President Donald Trump has been wielding his influence over data used by researchers, economists and scientists, an effort that was playing out largely behind the scenes until Friday, when he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The agency collects and publishes economic data, and Trump accused its former chief, Erika McEntarfer, of giving fake employment data last week showing a recent slowdown in the labor market.

"The numbers were rigged. Biden wasn’t doing well, he was doing poorly," Trump said in an interview on CNBC Tuesday, referring to the jobs numbers.

Presidents of both political parties often seek to spin government data to their benefit, cherry-picking numbers that put their agendas in the best light possible. But McEntarfer’s firing has drawn criticism from economists, Wall Street investors and even Republicans who are raising wider concerns about the continued reliability of government data once seen as the gold standard.