Trump's Trickle Down Psychologics
Firing of Economics Expert Stokes Fear in Global Citizens (Vol. 5; Issue 31)
Trump’s impulsive firing of a labor official on August 1 epitomizes the “final straw.” Instead of breaking the camel’s back, though, he broke the world’s trust in the American financial system.
What was the impetus to this firing? It seems Trump received a revised jobs report that he disliked. Trump’s solution: He terminated Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS compiles statistics on critical economic factors including inflation and employment. The jobs report she posted showed that hiring slowed in July, and was still lower in May and June.
Oh so typical of Trump, he accused McEntarfer of rigging the jobs report, and of misunderstanding the data collection and reporting standards at the bureau. When she revised a July jobs report that suggested a slowdown in the economy, Trump freaked out. McEntarfer, whose research focuses on job loss, retirement, worker mobility, and wage rigidity, is a highly qualified, non-partisan, longtime public servant. She has a doctorate in economics, and had previously worked at the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy, and the White House Council of Economic Advisers. These positions involved her providing senior officials with economic information.
The title of this essay, “Trickle-Down Psychologics,” is meant to be a play on the theory known as “Trickle Down Economics,” a phrase that became popular after the Great Depression. It holds that benefits provided to the wealthy eventually "trickle down" to the rest of the population. Cutting taxes for the rich and deregulating corporations, the thinking goes, will encourage investment, lead to job creation, and stimulate overall economic growth. Little empirical evidence exists that it has ever, or will ever, work.
Instead of creating financial success, however, Trump’s actions last week brought emotional distress. The psychological implications of Trump’s actions are particularly ominous. They seep into the international psyche like sewage leaking onto our heads from an overhead pipe.
Here are a few of the reactions noted in the media:
Former Treasury secretary Janet L. Yellen says that no advanced economy in the world would terminate an official for posting accurate statistics, adding:
This is the kind of thing you would only expect to see in a banana republic.
Amy O’Hara, a former Census Bureau official who now teaches at Georgetown University, fears Trump’s lies will infect other agencies. He will keep lying to maintain a positive message—even if his words are all untruths—and they ruin our international reputation. O’Hara says:
If the poverty numbers come in and look great, is the director of the Census going to get a raise? If the household income numbers don’t look great what happens then? What about G.D.P.? What about C.P.I.?
The editorial board of the Financial Times, a UK newspaper, writes:
Pity anyone tasked with delivering bad news about the US economy to Donald Trump.
They conclude:
Effective policymaking, public trust and market confidence become the collateral damage. Politicians who can’t face the facts endanger the institutions that rely on them.
In a piece titled, “The America We Knew Is Rapidly Slipping Away,” New York Times opinion writer Thomas Friedman writes:
Of all the terrible things Donald Trump has said and done as president, the most dangerous one just happened on Friday. Trump, in effect, ordered our trusted and independent government office of economic statistics to become as big a liar as he is.
Lying about a country’s economics has felled other governments in the past. Earlier this century, local authorities in China manipulated data to hit growth targets mandated by Beijing. Economic disaster resulted. Just a few years ago, in Greece, the government faked deficit numbers. As a result, the country developed a debilitating debt crisis. Argentina provides the scariest example. In the early 2000s, the government’s economic officials systematically understated inflation figures. The international community eventually stopped relying on Argentina’s government’s data, causing the country’s borrowing costs to increase and worsening an already extant debt crisis. The feedback loop led to its defaulting on international obligations—an economic storm from which the country has still not recovered.
Many people were already worried about America’s financial stability given the Trump tariff and other of his wishy-washy behaviors. Some wonder if they should leave the US. Others wonder, accurately, if the damage Trump inflicts can ever be reversed.
Unfortunately, this economic corruptions piles upon the plethora of executive orders already rattling the world. These create fault lines which leave us ill-prepared for last week’s crisis. They include the dismantling of USAID, rolling back environmental protections, attacking law firms and universities, and sweeping away legal as well as illegal aliens in draconian ICE raids.
An interesting side note, Trump’s behavior mimics that of the pervert. When it comes to sexual desire, for example, perverts misdirect their motivation towards an object, like a shoe or a piece of clothing. In doing so, they disregard the presence of the “other.” As an American president, Trump swears an oath to preserve the democracy as outlined in the Constitution. Instead of desiring democracy, he increasingly creates autocracy. Instead of serving the people, Trump serves the rich. In brief, Trump’s presidential behavior represents perversion par excellence.
In Seminar IV, Lacan (1956/2020) introduced perversion as a way that the normal object of desire becomes misdirected. Lacan thinks perverts are “thrown under” (p. 243) (Lat. subiaciō) the rules of society, diverted from the usual ways of transitioning from a childhood environment into adulthood. The pervert lives a life of immaturity and repression.
The jolt of firing McEntarfer, combined with Trump’s taking actions right out of the authoritarians playbook (Smith, 2025), elicits three primary emotional reactions. Some hide in denial, refusing to keep up on what’s happening or consider taking action; some become overwhelmed with fear and anger, causing them to consider actions like leaving the country, and; many simply become numb with feelings of powerless.
It is disheartening to see senior journalists, like Thomas Friedman, proclaim fear of America “slipping away.” Must we surrender to the fate? The Supreme Court’s ruling in step with Trump and the castrated Congress remaining equally dutiful to him represent immense challenges. But we are left with more than just mere hope. Resistance is needed more than ever in American history—because of the unprecedented threats to our democracy.
Those emotions just noted, particularly the anger and powerlessness, can fuel us to contact our representatives, support Democratic candidates, and otherwise take action to prevent further erosion of American democracy. Despite its many flaws, that form of government intends to protect us. Autocracy intends to control us. The rise of the autocrats, worsened by Trump’s firing of an important economic messenger, will cause still more emotional pain in an already-troubled American public. We can only hope those emotions can break through denial and become channeled into efforts towards positive change in our government.
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References
Editorial Board (8/4/25). Trump’s chilling assault on economic data. Financial Times
Friedman, T. (8/3/25). The America We Knew Is Rapidly Slipping Away. New York Times.
Lacan, J. (2020). The object relation: The seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book IV. (J.-A. Miller, Ed., A.R. Price, Trans.). London: Polity
Smith, J. (2025). The Authoritarian Playbook: The Decline of Democracy and The Battle to Restore It. New York: Independent.