Trump’s firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics head is a banana republic move

You’ve probably heard the urban legend about the 19th-century naturalist who spent his life traveling the world collecting insect species and then meticulously categorizing them. Long after he gained international fame, the old entomologist was walking the grounds of his estate when he noticed a bug he had never seen before crawling across his path. After staring at the creature momentarily, he brought down his heel and crushed it.

“You don’t exist,” he said and walked away.

This is the story I thought of when President Donald Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after the July jobs report featured only 73,000 new jobs and a substantially revised April and June, when job growth slowed, likely due to tariffs and deportations. The firing smacks of banana republic rule, whatever

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