By now, the Trump White House has a simple strategy for dealing with what it considers bad news: Attack the messenger. They have pressured TV networks to cancel comedy programs, filed lawsuits against major media outlets, and of course even fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for releasing jobs data they didn’t like.

Trump’s abrupt decision to remove BLS Commissioner Erika McEnterfar was unsurprising, but the absurd reasoning – and the further damage he could still do – deserve a closer look.

The back story is pretty straight-forward: On August 1, the BLS released its July jobs report, which found weaker than expected job creation and a slight increase in unemployment rate. The report also revised job creation numbers from the prior two months. This didn’t sit well with Trump, who claimed the numbers were “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”

There is no evidence to support the claim of rigging, which would be virtually impossible given the way the data are compiled, and really doesn’t even make sense. If the intent was to make Trump look bad, the jobs data get the most attention the day they are released, not when they are revised one or two months later. Why would someone make Trump look bad, release exaggerated jobs numbers on the day when the data gets lots of attention and then revise them downward when no one is looking?

Trump didn’t help his case when he picked E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, as his nominee for BLS Commissioner, after vowing to appoint a new BLS chair who is “much more........

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