By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — When the coronavirus surged during President Donald Trump’s first term, he called for a simple fix: Limit the amount of testing so the deadly outbreak looked less severe. When he lost the 2020 election, he had a ready-made reason: The vote count was fraudulent .

And on Friday, when the July jobs report revisions showed a distressed economy, Trump had an answer: He fired the official in charge of the data and called the report of a sharp slowdown in hiring “phony.”

Trump has a go-to playbook if the numbers reveal uncomfortable realities, and that’s to discredit or conceal the figures and to attack the messenger — all of which can hurt the president’s efforts to convince the world that America is getting stronger.

“Our democratic s

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