'Couldn't do it': DC insider fears Trump admin no longer has the smarts to publish facts

President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet meeting, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in the Cabinet Room. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

Professor and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said he feared President Donald Trump has starved the business analyst wing of his administration so thoroughly that the administration can no longer work to maintain the U.S. economy.

“It hasn't been that widely reported, but one important Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, the Survey of Consumer Expenditures, has been — it was scheduled to be released. They have now postponed the release,” Reich told MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi. “We don't know for how long. We don't know why, although a good guess is that this is not manipulation. It's just that they're so starved of resources.”

“They don't have enough people. They don't have enough money that they just couldn't do it,” said Reich, referring to massive layoffs across government that Trump instituted upon entering office in January. “Trump just fired the commissioner of labor statistics because he didn't like the numbers. And that's very much the route to a third-world [economy].”

Reich explained that accurate numbers are what sets the U.S. economy apart from blundering dictatorships run by leaders who control the statistics.

“There are countries like Turkey and Venezuela and in times past, Argentina. These are not role models,” said Reich. “… Nothing in modern economic history says that this is anything but a really terrible idea.

Additionally, Reich said it would be a problem to give control of both the fed and the White House to somebody who was “more sensible” than Donald Trump, much less Trump.

“Let Donald Trump have control of the fed? My god, you’re going to what? Your credibility will vanish in an instant.”

“And of course, it won't work because everybody will understand that [the numbers] are faked. But that's the road we're heading down,” Reich said.

“Yeah. The thing about unemployment and jobs and wealth is that you actually know it whether or not the government tells you. You can feel these things,” said Velshi.

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