‘Hallmarks of authoritarianism’: Trump banks on loyalists as he wages war on truth

Former officials say firing of BLS commissioner emblematic of president's battle against established facts and history

Donald Trump is waging a war on truth by firing top officials who present facts he finds unpalatable, while he banks on key loyalists at executive agencies to bolster his policies and powers by rewriting history's narrative" and squelching dissent, say scholars and former officials.

Trump's penchant for rejecting facts in an authoritarian style was especially revealed in August by his sudden firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, charging without evidence that her latest report was totally rigged", just hours after she released data undercutting his rosy economic boasts, say critics.