Experts in the News

Trump’s firing of BLS official casts shadow on federal data gathering

Perhaps the closest parallel to Friday’s firing happened in 1971, after the BLS reported that unemployment that June had dropped from 6.2% to 5.6% – good news for President Richard Nixon, who faced reelection the next year. When he read the following day that the bureau warned the drop might be “a statistical quirk,” he quietly reassigned the assistant BLS commissioner who had made the “quirk” comment, according to an account by Kenneth Hughes.

Ken Hughes

Hegseth's Pentagon Moves Spark Backlash

Eric and Eliot address the latest buffoonery emanating from the Pentagon before turning to a discussion about Trump's evolving position on Russia. They also address the horrendous situation in Gaza and try to apportion blame as fairly as possible given the difficulty of parsing statements by both Hamas and the Israeli government. The conversation includes updates on the situations in Syria, Iran, and domestically on Columbia University's recent settlement with the Trump Administration.

Eric Edelman

Trump’s plan for White House ballroom sparks outrage from his critics

“I can understand why someone who thinks on a grand scale, as obviously President Trump does, would want this ballroom added,” said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian and co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “That being said, the optics for people who disagree with this president, it will probably have an impact on how they view this.”

Barbara Perry