The academic community has referred to Trump's attempt to seize control of statistical agencies, accusing them of "employment data manipulation," as lacking evidence

BlockBeats News, August 8: This week, the University of Chicago conducted a survey of 46 American economists, 38 of whom stated that there is no evidence to suggest that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment data is biased toward either the Republican or Democratic Party. Many economists argue that Trump's attacks on US economic data agencies pose a serious threat to official statistics. Last Friday, Trump ordered the dismissal of the head of the BLS (the non-farm payroll data agency), claiming without evidence that the disappointing employment data was "manipulated." The BLS later confirmed the dismissal of the head, Erika McEntarfer, with her deputy William Wiatrowski serving as acting head.

Trump has previously claimed that the BLS inflated employment numbers last year to help the Democratic Party during the presidential election. However, the agency revised the numbers downward by over 800,000 in August 2024, which was seen as a blow to the Democratic Party at the time. Despite the BLS facing issues such as personnel shortages, funding gaps, and reduced survey responses, former statisticians and economists have stated that manipulating data is actually very difficult.

Anil Kashyap of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago stated, "If you have any understanding of how these numbers are constructed, you would know that successfully manipulating them would require a vast conspiracy." Nancy Stokey of the University of Chicago said, "Trump's dismissal of the head of the BLS will only harm America's reputation."