In a flagrant and deeply troubling move, the President of the United States has dismissed the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a gesture justified by nothing more than vague insinuations and an aversion to unpleasant information. The labor market figures fell short of expectations; instead of facing the hard realities they represent, the administration chooses scapegoating over humility, and accusation over accountability. The claim that official data has been manipulated for political reasons, absent any genuine evidence, signals a disturbing disregard for both the integrity of public institutions and the intelligence of the citizenry.

Let us not mince words: the statistical bureaus, painstakingly built over generations, are intended to be citadels of objectivity and impartiality—a bulwark protecting us from the arbitrary dictates of those who wield political power. When these vital organs are subjected to political purges simply for reporting reality, all citizens should be alarmed, regardless of partisan preference. Economic data, compiled by professional, apolitical analysts, ought to inform policy, not be twisted to fit the whims of those at the helm. Such interference, even the threat of it, tears at the very fabric of a functioning free society.

For it is precisely when leaders cannot compel the facts to fit their narrative that the measure of their statesmanship is tested. To interfere with the institution responsible for recording and announcing those facts—on the mere grounds that the truth is inconvenient—is to descend into the practice of despotisms past, where rulers assumed that reality itself could be reshaped by decree. The independence of statistical agencies is not a trivial procedural matter. It is an essential component of what little defense the individual and society possess against the tide of arbitrary rule and the loss of trust in the most basic elements of economic interaction.

If government data ceases to be trusted, commerce is undermined, planning becomes futile, and suspicion is sown throughout the economy. This is why, as I have often warned, the concentration of power and arbitrary government action are the greatest threats to liberty and prosperity. This present episode is yet another tragic illustration of how the spirit of freedom is eroded not by sweeping legislative acts, but by the slow, corrosive seepage of political interference into domains that should remain neutral and sacrosanct.

The strength and stability of a free society depend ultimately on the rule of law and the independence of its institutions. When those in power seek to subjugate these to their transient interests, they set in motion forces destructive to both liberty and prosperity. The champions of economic and political freedom must not remain silent in the face of such actions, no matter how powerful their perpetrator. To do otherwise is to acquiesce in the slow march toward a system in which truth, too, is a function of power—and where freedom cannot long endure.