President Donald Trump on Monday nominated E.J. Antoni to be the new commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that collects and publishes data about jobs and inflation, after firing the previous commissioner, whom he accused without evidence of rigging jobs data.
“I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Highly Respected Economist, Dr. E.J. Antoni, as the next Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
In recent years, Antoni has served as an economist at two conservative think tanks: previously at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and currently at the Heritage Foundation. He has been an outspoken critic of BLS and its approach to data collection in the past.
During an August 1 appearance on Trump ally Steve Bannon’s podcast, Antoni sharply criticized Erika McEntarfer, who was the BLS commissioner at the time, when discussing the latest BLS monthly jobs report. The report had showed disappointing numbers for July and a sharp downward revision for employment growth in May and June.
Calling her “incompetent,” Antoni appeared to agree with Bannon that Trump should appoint a MAGA Republican to fill the role instead.
Later that day, Trump fired McEntarfer.
Trump accused McEntarfer, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden to the role of commissioner in 2023 and confirmed by a bipartisan Senate vote, of manipulating the data for “political purposes.”
“Last weeks Job’s Report was RIGGED,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social last week. “Those big adjustments were made to cover up, and level out, the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!!”
However, McEntarfer’s firing was met with backlash from many economists who argued that the move could damage the bureau’s credibility.
William Beach, a former Trump-nominated BLS commissioner, condemned the decision to fire McEntarfer.
“I don’t think there’s any grounds at all for this, for this firing, and it really hurts the statistical system,” Beach said on CNN earlier this month before Antoni was appointed. “Suppose that they get a new commissioner … And they do a bad number. Well, everybody’s going to think, ‘well, it’s not as bad as it probably really is,’ because they’re going to suspect political influence. So, this is damaging.”
Antoni’s appointment will need to be confirmed by the Senate.
The BLS is a nonpartisan agency whose data underpins key decisions across the public and private sectors. Its reports influence everything from Social Security payments to corporate hiring and layoff plans, shaping how policymakers and businesses gauge the health of the US economy.
Antoni has been a frequent critic of BLS data collection methods, once calling a methodology change for the Consumer Price Index an “Orwellian trick” to mask higher inflation in a blog post.
Concerns over the bureau’s data accuracy had surfaced even before McEntarfer’s firing, with some economists warning that Trump administration budget cuts, layoffs and hiring freezes could undermine its reliability.
Earlier this year, the BLS posted a notice saying it had suspended data collection entirely in three cities. Last month, the agency said it had further cut back on the data it was collecting from the rest of the country by roughly 15%.
In July, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was asked about the cuts.
“The government data is really the gold standard in data,” he said. “We need it to be good and to be able to rely on it.”
CNN’s Ramishah Maruf contributed to reporting.
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