"A Trump Administration Playbook: No Data, No Problem"

"A pattern of getting rid of statistics has emerged that echoes the president’s first term, when he suggested if the nation stopped testing for Covid, it would have few cases." 

"When the Trump administration said last week that it would stop requiring thousands of industrial facilities to report their planet-warming pollution, the move fit a growing pattern: If data points to a problem, stop collecting the data.

At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, experts are no longer tracking the most expensive extreme weather events, those that cause at least $1 billion in damage.

At NASA, Trump officials want to decommission two powerful satellites that provide precise measurements of the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change.

And at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, layoffs have gutted a division that maintains statistics on car crashes, gun violence and homicides, among other things."

Maxine Joselow reports for the New York Times September 18, 2025.

Source: NYTimes, 09/22/2025