President Trump’s firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner is raising concerns about whether her replacement could manipulate job numbers to work in his favor.

The traditionally nonpartisan commissioner role, usually held by career professionals who span multiple administrations, has given all presidents bad news in recent years. But Trump’s firing of Erika McEntarfer, a Biden appointee, has given data experts new worry that their traditionally independent work could now be politicized.

While experts acknowledge that manipulating economic numbers is difficult and highly risky, they have said Trump’s actions threaten to undermine confidence in data on which businesses, consumers and lawmakers rely.

William Beach, who was nominated by Trump in 2017 to serve a four-year term, was among the experts who sounded alarm bells about the decision to fire McEntarfer.

In a joint statement with other economic experts and former government officials, Beach warned that Trump’s actions undermined the integrity of the jobs report and was essentially making McEntarfer a scapegoat for a process that involves dozens of workers.

“This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers,” The Friends of Bureau Labor Statistics said in a statement. “U.S. official statistics are the gold standard globally. When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science.”

A former Biden Treasury official agreed,........

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