Agustina Vergara Cid: Trump resembles these South American authoritarians

When President Trump fired the Commissioner of Labor Statistics earlier this month, hours after a weak jobs report, it gave me a déjà vu from my youth in Argentina. In 2007, leftist President Cristina Kirchner similarly fired those responsible for government statistics and installed loyalists who’d issue “friendlier” numbers.

Trump and the Kirchner coalition sit on opposite sides of the conventional left–right political spectrum, yet they share myriad commonalities. Why? And what can the case of Argentina teach Americans?