Canceled surveys, missing datasets and staffing cuts are leaving the US with growing blind spots — and weakening trust in official numbers.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-09/why-the-trump-administration-is-choosing-not-to-collect-some-us-data
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*Molly Smith for Bloomberg News*
Data geeks spent most of 2025 worrying that President Donald Trump would cook the books on America’s most important numbers. The bigger threat turned out to be that he wouldn’t count them in the first place.
Surveys that monitor food security, police misconduct and how schools are supporting post-pandemic learning recovery have been canceled. Data collection has been suspended for emerging substance abuse trends as well as more than 15% of the sample of the nation’s most popular inflation index. Information about maternal and infant mortality in the US is no longer aggregated up to the national level, forcing doctors and researchers to scavenge across the states to gather it. And there’s no knowing whether databases on critical infrastructure for disaster planning, or maps that identify communities disproportionately affected by environmental hazards, will ever come back.
The loss of this data is creating headaches — or worse — for the public officials, scientists, businesses and ordinary citizens who rely on it. And while canceling surveys is perhaps less drastic than manipulating the numbers outright, it’s still a form of controlling the narrative.
“If you are not collecting data, then it leaves this vacuum where anyone can say whatever they want,” says Beth Jarosz, vice president of the Association of Public Data Users. “The narrative will be political and propaganda rather than based in fact.”
Trump took office with the US statistical system already under strain, because of declining response rates, shrinking budgets and distortions from the pandemic. But 2025 was a perfect storm: Federal agencies’ woes were amplified by steep staffing cuts and high-profile firings, while the longest-ever government shutdown halted data collection and left a permanent hole in key measures including inflation and unemployment.
[Read the full story here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-09/why-the-trump-administration-is-choosing-not-to-collect-some-us-data?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2Nzk1OTUwOSwiZXhwIjoxNzY4NTY0MzA5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUOExENEhLSUpIOTUwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.1Sg3C1DTVSvBG9G_n6vNQqxoFBK8Mma7yf3H2eGImuI)
Perhaps there is a way to work this to everyone’s advantage, perhaps using the Administrative Procedures Act which requires actions to not be “arbitrary or capricious”, this requiring evidentiary input.
This is a way bigger problem than people realize. It’s not just that large parts of the economy rely on trustworthy and available data to do their work in the US, but most of the developed world relies on this data. One example is medical research.
The entire point is destabilizing everything they can.
Old men want to see the world burn before they die.
Good statistics and record keeping make theft/graft harder. Therefore if you want to steal as much as you can, you need to make sure that records are inaccurate, so if you are ever caught you can argue that the Sara is just wrong.
They know Hitler would never have been able to do what he did without economic ruin first.
If we’re all focused on our own economic problems, the non-MAGA people in society who would otherwise protest won’t notice when portions of the population just “disappear.”
“Government doesn’t work! Look how fast we broke it! Better give everything to a few billionaires. They know better.”
You know what. *Thank God* they don’t understand the usefulness of rigorous statistics like you know who did…
It’s not breaking down. It’s being purposely dismantled.
It’s easier to state your own BS when nobody has real statistics to prove otherwise.