Can we all change the rules of the game if we don’t like the results? That is what President Trump did this past week when he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The jobs report for July didn’t look particularly good and the ones from the prior couple of months were adjusted to show smaller numbers. Those revisions were admittedly large, apparently the largest since 1979 if we omit the COVID years.
Trump said the numbers were rigged to make him look bad. It probably does make him look bad, but as usual with his claims, he doesn’t seem able to present any proof. And apparently the head of the BLS doesn’t actually create the statistics. They just put the report out after staffers collect the data and put together the numbers. So, this was definitely a case of shooting the messenger.
Trump is also making noises like he plans to fire the chairman of the Federal Reserve. This seems to be a common practice for him. “I don’t like what you are doing, so you are fired.” Well, I don’t like what Trump is doing either, but I have to wait until 2028 to fire him.
Maybe Trump needs to take a look in the mirror when it comes to what is creating issues in the job market. His on again, off again tariffs make it hard for business owners, particularly small business owners who can’t absorb the cost, to plan for any future expansion. That is also part of the reason why the stock market is bouncing up and down like a yo-yo.
When you are the president, sometimes you have to make hard decisions. Those decisions might not always be popular. At that point, you need to be able to take the criticism The problem with President Trump is that he doesn’t seem able to make a decision and stick to it. I will grant you that sometimes situations change, so maybe the decision made needs to be adjusted. But in Trump’s case, he is indecisive, kind of like Wisconsin weather. If you don’t like it, don’t worry, it will change, sometimes in 24 hours, sometimes less.
This country needs leadership, someone who can make decisions, defend the decisions they make, and stand by them, instead of making unfounded claims with no proof. Unfortunately for us, that is not Donald Trump. And unfortunately for us, he is not a party of one. There are very few real leaders left to us. Maybe we need to travel back in time to when our leaders understood the true meaning of leadership.