President Donald Trump has nominated E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which was quickly followed by reports saying that Antoni is suggesting to suspend the publishing of the monthly jobs report. The nomination and the remark immediately lit up social media especially after Trump fired the last commissioner over the unflattering jobs report.
Critics blasted the pick. Economist Joey Politano highlighted his social media exchanges with Antoni, saying that “an ‘economist’ so dumb I had to explain to him how the import price index works last month will now lead the BLS, kill me,” he wrote.
He pointed to their July exchange, when Antoni said import prices came in “WAAAY below expectations,” citing June at +0.1% month over month and −0.2% year over year, with May revised to −0.4% m/m, while adding he was “still waiting for tariffs to be passed on by foreign producers.” Politano countered then: “The import price index measure pre-tariff prices, the fact that pre-tariff prices are basically flat means Americans are paying the tariffs.”
Politano added that Antoni was the “same guy who modeled the boomers as returning to the workforce in the millions as they age into their 70s/80s.”
Antoni is the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and a former Texas Public Policy Foundation economist, with a Ph.D. in economics from Northern Illinois University. He has been a prominent public supporter of Trump-era policies and contributed to Heritage’s Project 2025.
The move comes after a weak July employment report and historically large downward revisions to prior months, which led to Trump dismissing former Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. The report showed 73,000 jobs added in July, with a net 258,000 downward revision to May–June. Trump accused McEntarfer—without evidence—of manipulating figures to harm Republicans.
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