When the President of the United States fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for political reasons, it was not just a personnel news story but a policy maker pushing the world's largest economy into an unknown storm. (Background: False Prosperity! The U.S. non-farm employment in July was far below expectations, with revisions in May and June down by 258,000 jobs; Trump blasts Powell and fires the labor chief) (Supplementary Background: Massacre! Bitcoin fell below $113,000, Ethereum lost $3,500, with a total liquidation of $1 billion across the network) The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the latest data on the evening of the 1st: The U.S. added only 73,000 non-farm jobs in July, far below the market expectation of 110,000, and this non-farm employment report revised the employment data for May and June down to 19,000 and 14,000 jobs, respectively, totaling a revision of 258,000 positions, highlighting the softness of the labor market, which led investors to seek safe havens, causing declines in both the U.S. stock markets and cryptocurrencies. Trump's attack on Powell and the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics The non-farm data on Friday also ignited President Trump's dissatisfaction, as he launched a fierce attack on Federal Reserve Chairman Powell and Labor Statistics Chief Erika McEntarfer on his social media platform, Truth Social. I just learned that our country's 'employment data' is compiled by labor statistics chief Dr. Erika McEntarfer, appointed by Biden, who is falsifying employment data before the 2024 election in an attempt to improve Kamala Harris's chances of winning. The Bureau of Labor Statistics overestimated about 818,000 job growth data in March 2024 and again overestimated 112,000 in August and September before the 2024 presidential election, setting a record—how could it be so grossly wrong? We need accurate employment data. I have instructed my team to immediately fire this Biden-appointed political appointee, who will be replaced by a more competent and qualified candidate. Such important data must be fair and accurate and cannot be manipulated for political purposes. She claimed that only 73,000 jobs were added in July (shocking!), and more importantly, the data for the previous two months was revised down by 258,000. Similar situations occurred in the first half of this year and always with negative adjustments... When the nation loses its ability to perceive the storm Although it has not yet been confirmed whether Labor Statistics Chief Erika McEntarfer will actually be fired, Trump's actions are creating a brand new, asymmetric systemic risk. In the past, we were concerned about the economic storm itself: recession, unemployment, inflation. But in the future, a more fundamental crisis is emerging: our policymakers are no longer adjusting their direction based on objective data, but are demanding data that aligns with their pre-set direction. When only 73,000 jobs were added in July and the data for the previous two months was drastically revised down by 258,000, creating the worst quarterly performance since the pandemic, Trump's narrative that 'my tariff policy is bringing economic prosperity' conflicted with the data. His choice is not to review the policy but to eliminate the data publishers. This could push the entire economy into a 'blind' state: How does the Federal Reserve set interest rates? If the credibility of inflation and employment data is in tatters, any decision by Powell may be seen as political maneuvering. How does Congress formulate relief bills? If we cannot accurately measure the scale and depth of unemployment, any assistance may be too late or misdirected. How do investors allocate capital? When official data becomes political propaganda, the market will be flooded with rumors and panic, and capital flows will no longer be based on value judgments but on political suspicions. Long-term neglect before the collapse of trust On the other hand, for the past fifteen years, whether under Democratic or Republican rule, the budget of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has been severely cut under the pressure of fiscal tightening. According to reports in June this year, the Trump administration's budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 cut the budget and personnel of the Bureau of Labor Statistics by about 8%. This may indirectly lead to a significant loss of experienced statisticians, meaning fewer resources for field surveys and less quality control. The result is that the 'revisions' of monthly employment reports have become increasingly large in recent years. This is not a conspiracy but a lack of system capacity, causing initial estimated data to become less precise and requiring more time to verify, leading to larger adjustments. And Trump cleverly took advantage of this. He repackaged the 'data quality vulnerability' resulting from the agency's lack of resources into a political conspiracy. In the past, questioning data was an internal debate over the rules, challenging the accuracy of the data. But now, Trump's attack is that 'the data is fake,' which subverts the rules themselves and denies the legitimacy of the institution. This fatal blow could set off a one-time explosion of the trust deficit accumulated over decades. In the future, the market will be unable to distinguish: is it that the data really has a problem, or does politics need it to have a problem? The ghost of Argentina's yesterday: When 'truth' becomes the president's private property What happens when the official data of a country loses credibility? We don’t need to imagine it; we just need to look at the ghost of Argentina's yesterday. Between 2007 and 2015, Argentina's official statistical agency INDEC systematically underestimated the real inflation rate under political pressure. When the official figures indicated mild inflation, people experienced price increases in supermarkets that were several times higher. The result was catastrophic: investors completely lost confidence, capital fled en masse, and the economic management of the entire country was paralyzed because no one believed anything the government said. Trump's attack on the BLS is pushing the United States down this dangerous path. This incident marks the end of 'economic truth' as a national public good and begins to be transformed into the president's personal political asset. The value of data is no longer determined by its methodological rigor and objectivity but by whether it serves the political narrative of those in power. When data shows a strong economy, it is a great proof of 'Trump Economics'; when data shows a weak economy, it is a malicious fabrication by the 'deep state.' In this power transfer, Trump attempts to forcibly shift public trust in institutions to trust in himself. This is a gamble on whether his personal charisma can overshadow the professional credibility of a century-old institution. If he succeeds, then the next BLS director will face a soul-searching question: Is my loyalty to the data or to the president? If it is the latter, then the guardian of the American economy will go from a vigilant 'watchdog' to a begging 'lapdog.' There is no middle ground between the watchdog and the lapdog. When the dust settles, what this incident leaves us with is not just short-term turmoil in the financial markets or a political mudslinging match. It touches the core of how a modern democratic country operates: do we still believe that there exists an objective reality independent of politics? The economic data of a country, like its legal system and freedom of the press, is the cornerstone of maintaining social trust and stable operation. To shake it is to shake the foundation of governance of the entire country. When global capital is asking 'Can we still trust America's numbers?' this will cause immeasurable erosion of the dollar's status as the global reserve currency. What we will get in the future is a watchdog that dares to sound the alarm when the storm comes or a lapdog that only caters to the master's will? On this question, there is no ambiguity; the answer will determine whether we can navigate the storm or accelerate our fall into darkness.