Politics

Trump Has One Last Chance to Meddle With Census Numbers

The White House could still manage to subtract millions of people from the count, but odds are against it.

Illustration: Wren McDonald for Bloomberg Businessweek

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Kriston Capps

December 24, 2020 at 9:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the December 28, 2020 issue of businessweek.

The count for the 2020 census is done. Despite the dangers of the pandemic and seismic shifts in the political landscape, the U.S. Census Bureau fulfilled its constitutional duty. Against the wishes of President Trump, the census questionnaire didn’t include a citizenship question.

But the task before the Census Bureau isn’t quite finished. Before it can ship the numbers off to federal and state governments, its statisticians must complete a monumental task of data processing—a standard yet exacting array of imputations, de-duplications, and other refinements. The Trump administration is leaning on the bureau to produce statistics that census experts worry could be used for highly partisan purposes. If Trump gets his way, the census count could give a boost to the GOP in the apportionment of districts for the House of Representatives, removing seats from urban areas in immigrant-rich states and reassigning them to rural parts of Whiter states.