What we all lose in Trump and Musk's attack on government data
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President Trump and Elon Musk's assault on government data is fueling concerns in business, academia, newsrooms and beyond that critical information about vital subjects may be unreliable — if it exists at all.
Why it matters: Everything from how we allocate Congressional seats to the weather app on your phone relies at least in part on accurate government data. If that data becomes unavailable or is seen as untrustworthy, it could have far-reaching consequences across politics, business, health and beyond.
- Government data collection is taxpayer-funded — Americans have paid to collect this knowledge, so we're all entitled to use it.
Driving the news: A wide array of government data and reports have been inaccessible through normal channels since Trump directed federal agencies to cull certain topics from agency websites, documents, etc.
- Trump's primary focus was to quash gender and transgender language.
- But the order appears to have swept up, or chilled, plenty of other information, including previously released Census data and economic reports.
- The number of datasets available through Data.gov has fluctuated wildly since Trump's second term began.
The latest: Labor groups filed suit yesterday seeking to prevent Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" from accessing vital economic data at the Labor Department, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
Between the lines: Researchers, journalists and public data advocates have been working round-the-clock to archive existing government datasets for fear they'll be taken down — perhaps forever.
- Yes, but: Those efforts can only preserve previously released data. They can do nothing to ensure that the government keeps collecting new information, or that it won't tamper with the records it does collect and share.
Threat level: A staggering amount of commercial and research activity hinges upon free access to reliable government data. The sudden disappearance or unreliability of that data jeopardizes business plans, science research, medical developments and more.
- That Trump's orders targeted data around vulnerable groups will make it even harder for researchers, lawmakers and others to understand those populations' makeup and needs.
- And casting even "subtle doubt" on government data "could quietly erode the very foundations of our economy — and our trust in public agencies," journalist Lizzie O'Leary writes in Slate.
Flashback: Trump has a long history of mucking about with data.
- In 2019, he presented an altered map of Hurricane Dorian's potential path to support his unsubstantiated claim that the storm would affect Alabama. (Trump's new pick to head NOAA, Neil Jacobs, went along with the President's claims.)
- And in 2020, public health experts balked at a Trump administration decision altering how hospitals' COVID-19 data was collected.
What's next: Private companies may step up to fill potential data voids.
- Wastewater analysis companies like Biobot Analytics, for example, have long supplemented official health data.
- Yet at least some of the private sector's work is likely to come with a price tag attached — unlike the troves of taxpayer-funded government data normally freely available to companies, researchers and curious citizens.
- For example: Project 2025 called for NOAA's forecasting operations to be "fully commercialize[d]," though Jacobs has expressed opposition to such a plan.
The bottom line: At least some government data will surely still flow — the CDC just posted new maternal mortality numbers, for example, though with a glaring caveat about agency website changes due to Trump's orders.
- Whether we trust government data is another matter, with serious implications.
What's next: The Bureau of Labor Statistics' much-watched monthly jobs report, due out tomorrow, will be a major test of that trust.
