Trump regime's lies about economic data will impact Social Security and much more!

We are on the way to becoming Argentina in the 2000's!

Zero increase in the cost of groceries over the past month?! Are you kidding me?!

But that’s what Donald Trump wants you to believe as told to us by his regime’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Tuesday. That lie conjures up the famous line from George Orwell’s “1984” which told us, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

No one in America—at least those who don’t have a personal shopper—can deny food prices have been climbing. I’ve seen it first hand as has as people on social media who commented on my post calling out Trump’s lies about grocery prices. But Trump thinks we will accept his regime’s lies about inflation dropping over the past month.

But sadly, the corporate media delivered exactly what Trump wanted with headlines like CBS News telling us that inflation was “cooler than economists had forecast.” CNBC also touted that inflation was less than expected while over at Fox Business they cheered “Inflation cools” from month before.

I’ve long repeated that we can’t believe anything the Trump regime says on any issue. After all, the regime is headed by a serial liar who was convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records to cheat in the 2016 election. Add to that Trump is all about projection and he has long claimed every good economic number during a Democratic administration was “rigged” and a “scam.” And that is what we are seeing now.

My concerns certainly grew on this front two weeks ago when Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, who had just released economic data showing job growth was anemic. McEntarfer had been confirmed for her position in 2024 by bipartisan 86-8 Senate vote, with support from JD Vance and Marco Rubio. But because she reported the truth about the jobs data, Trump fired her.

Of course, others in Trump regime saw that and they got the clear message: Release data that makes Trump look good or be fired. That is the context in which these new unbelievable inflation numbers must be viewed in.

And it’s about to get worse. To little fanfare on Monday, Trump nominated a replacement for McEntarfer. Is this a non-partisan person who we can have confidence will tell us the truth? Stop laughing. Of course, you know it’s not.

Instead, Trump nominated EJ Antoni, the chief economist at pro-Trump Heritage Foundation-- who literally wrote Project 2025. Trump’s post Monday announcing Antoni’s nomination was laughable given we know what Trump wants: “Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE.” (All caps I assume are to emphasize the lies!)

Antoni is as blindly pro-Trump as they get. He had called for McEntarfer to be fired shortly before Trump canned her and did so while on Steve Bannon’s podcast. You know, a place where reputable economists make appearances!

And as NBC News reported, “Antoni has written a number of pieces for the think tank that are highly complementary of the Trump administration.” They added, “One of his recent reports said that the June jobs report, before it was revised, was a “home run” for the president.” Apparently, a “home run” is an economics term to this Trump lackey.

Alarmingly, no one was happier that Antoni was nominated than Bannon--who has been pressing Trump to pick him. In other words, believe NOTHING Antoni says about jobs data.

That is why Jason Furman, who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, said Monday: "E.J. Antoni is completely unqualified to be BLS commissioner. He is an extreme partisan and does not have any relevant experience." He added, Antoni “would be a break from decades of nonpartisan technocrats."

And Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan, added, “Let’s focus on qualifications: Antoni finished grad school 5 years ago at Northern Illinois with no distinction… Zero publications. One lifetime citation (by a former colleague). This record would not earn you a job as junior economist at BLS.”

But competence and qualifications mean nothing to Trump—as we can see from his clown car of a regime. Rather, all the Trump cares about is loyalty--and with Antoni he has found a person who will tell us the economy is as “great” as Trump wants.

All of this matters far beyond politics. False economic data can potentially impact all of us in various ways from Social Security payments to our investments to understanding the economy’s weaknesses.

In fact, on Monday, CNBC ran an article on this very issue with the headline, “Wall Street is concerned about the reliability of government inflation data on the eve of CPI report.” Citing various Wall Street executives, CNBC wrote, “Beneath the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ reports on consumer and producer prices will be simmering questions over the data’s validity.”

The business publication also warned, “Doubt over the accuracy and integrity of the data is a serious issue considering how much BLS work is used to formulate policy, calculate Social Security payments and inform any number of other political and economic decisions.”

Yep, that means if Trump’s regime lies about inflation, the 72 million people receiving Social Security will not get an accurate annual cost of living adjustment. And that is just for starters.

One of the biggest cautionary tales comes from the government of Argentina, which in the 2000s intentionally understated inflation figures. That happened coincidentally enough after the nation’s leader fired the person in charge of reporting economic data and replaced him with a loyalist who fabricated numbers intended to make the leader look good. But in the end, everyone caught on—especially consumers who kept seeing prices jump despite the government data saying otherwise. In time, investors lost faith in Argentina--which ultimately had a horrific impact on the economy, driving up the country’s borrowing costs and worsening a debt crisis that led to it defaulting on its international obligations. In other words, it caused an economic disaster.

That is why Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair who Trump appointed but now attacks daily, recently stated, “Good data helps not just the Fed, it helps the government, but it also helps the private sector.” Powell added, “The United States has been a leader in that for 100 years and we really need to continue that in my view.”

Those days are over. We are now on the path to becoming a nation where the regime’s only mandate is make Trump look good. And history warns us that this will lead to an economic catastrophe that will hurt all of us.

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