President Trump, the Blamer in Chief, was at it again yesterday when he fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shortly after the latest jobs report was released showing a significant drop in the number of jobs being added to the economy. We all know Trump does not like facts and use of the words ‘truth’ and ‘Trump’ in the same sentence is usually oxymoronic. However, to fire someone like Dr. McEntarfer because you don’t like the report is like shooting the doctor who tells you that you have cancer. The cancer will still be there. It solves nothing. In fact, it probably makes the situation worse because the next doctor who examines you will be more likely to tell you that you are healthy as a horse when, in fact, the cancer is eating away at you instead of being properly treated. That is exactly what is happening in the United States right now.
Firing Dr. McEntarfer will not create new jobs! That is simply a fact – one of those trivial things that Trump doesn’t like. A real leader would look at the data, understand that there is a problem, gather the experts and try to formulate a solution. However, experts who actually understand the subject matter are becoming extremely rare in the Trump administration. Further, the Trump approach to ‘solve’ any problem is to assign blame and mount a disinformation campaign to convince people everything is just wonderful, and it wasn’t his fault. (They tried something similar on the Titanic!)
Trump and his sycophantic circus are continuing to purge the administration of expertise in various agencies in a way that is truly endangering Americans. The firing of Dr. McEntarfer was just one of the most recent examples. Trump right-wing “loyalty attack dog” Laura Loomer caused West Point to rescind its offer to Jen Easterly, former head of cyber-security, under the Biden administration. This at the same time experts talk about the increasing cyber threat from China.
RFK Jr. fired an entire panel of vaccine experts. Kennedy has absolutely no medical training whatsoever and yet he fired a panel with years of expertise in vaccines, all of whom were heavily credentialed. He is replacing these individuals with fellow vaccine skeptics and people who have far less bona fides than they people they have replaced. This clearly puts American lives at risk.
Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard are two others who are obviously in jobs way over their heads. Both have fired individuals who are very competent but by whatever measuring stick they use, have been deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump and his agenda. The gutting of expertise in the Department of Defense and the arena of the Director of National Security should make every American fearful.
Trump’s disdain for experts just goes to show how insecure he really is as a person. He always claims to know more than anyone else about virtually any subject. He knows more than the generals. He knows more than the lawyers. He knows more than the top economists in the country. However, as the saying goes, “If you think you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.”
The real question is simply this, “How many American lives will be lost or destroyed because the Trump administration places a higher premium on loyalty than on expertise?”
