It is too soon to know whether the United States is on a similar path. But economists and other experts said that Mr. Trump’s decision on Friday to fire Erika McEntarfer, the Senate-confirmed head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was a troubling step in that direction.

US President Donald Trump said he would fire the head of the agency charged with publishing some of America's most closely watched economic data, after a weaker-than-expected jobs report stoked further alarm about his tariff policies.

President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics hours after a report showed weak job growth, prompting outcries from economists to lawmakers and raising concerns over the integrity of the data going forward.