By John Q. Hosedrinker 
The Trump administration has been criticized for concealing or eliminating public data and statistics, including research on right-wing extremism and unfavorable jobs reports. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has released a report detailing how these actions, coupled with funding cuts, are hindering experts and the public from understanding the impacts of the administration’s policies. The report highlights the removal of data, such as the Household Food Security reports, and the reduced capacity of the US Census Bureau due to staffing changes and budget cuts. The CBPP warns that these actions, including the weakening of the decennial census, will significantly impede efforts to track the consequences of the administration’s policies and will limit fact-checking capabilities.
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Trump-GOP Hiding Federal Data So Nobody Will Know the Depth of the Destruction They Are Sowing is a very real concern right now. It’s like they’re trying to bury the evidence of what they’re doing, making it harder for anyone to see the true impact of their policies. We’re talking about everything from hunger to the environment, with a real risk of seeing the data vanish entirely.
The decision to stop releasing hunger data, for example, is particularly alarming. This isn’t just a bureaucratic change; it’s a strategic move to obscure the human cost of their actions. By hiding this data, they’re effectively trying to engineer a famine, or at least make it appear less severe than it actually is. We’re supposed to believe that everything is fine, while behind the scenes, a crisis unfolds. The scary part is, if they get away with it, the data becomes harder to collect from other resources, especially if those other sources aren’t as good.
It’s not just about the data they’re *choosing* not to collect. It’s about the data they’re potentially manipulating. This goes beyond simply defunding agencies; it’s about controlling the narrative. Think about the way information was handled during the COVID-19 crisis. Now imagine that same kind of control being applied across the board, to everything from economic indicators to environmental health. It’s a classic authoritarian move, right out of the playbook of countries like China and Russia. They want to present an illusion of prosperity and stability, even when the reality is far different.
Looking at the local level, it’s a little bit easier to try and see the cracks in what they are doing. You can try to use information gathered from food banks, homeless shelters, and even local foreclosure rates, as a way of trying to get some type of grasp on what is going on. There’s only so much they can sweep under the rug. They tried this before.
The question is, how far will this rabbit hole go? Will they try to disappear entirely? Will they try to stop collecting important data? Or just remove it? The answer is probably going to be “yes” to some or all of those questions.
This goes beyond just one administration, by the way. Think about “Project 2025,” the playbook for the next presidential term. It’s a comprehensive plan to dismantle the existing framework and reshape government in their image. This isn’t about a four-year blip; it’s about a fundamental restructuring of power, a foundation of strength, unity, and friendship, or what they call it, at least.
And let’s not forget the implications for our future. If they control the data, they control the narrative, and if they control the narrative, they control history. We could end up with distorted versions of events, where the true devastation they caused is downplayed or even erased. And it’s not just about the present. The fact that far right parties are rising around the world means that this problem isn’t just a US issue. It is a global one.
Ultimately, it’s a fight for transparency and accountability. We need to be vigilant, demand the data, and hold those in power accountable for their actions. If we don’t, we risk entering a dark age where the truth is hidden, and the consequences are dire.