The D.C. Brief

IN NORMAL TIMES, THE FIRST Friday of the month brings a routine tranche of government data known as the monthly jobs report.

- By Philip Elliott

The markets react, the politicians preen, and most Americans go about their day.

But these are not normal times, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics is no longer in the safe zone of nonpartisanship thanks to President Donald Trump's decision to can its chief because he didn't like the math. On Aug. 1, Trump summarily fired BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer after her team of stats mavens revised downward the job numbers for May and June. Trump decided the revisions were an effort to embarrass him and stoked conspiracy theories of rigged spreadsheets. It was the equivalent of firing a National Weather Service meteorologist because he spotted a hurricane and said something about it.