White House withdraws E.J. Antoni’s nomination to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics
The White House withdrawn on Tuesday the appointment of EJ Antoni, a conservative economist, to be the next commissioner of the work statistics office.
“The White House is looking forward to appointing a new candidate to direct the BLS very soon,” said a white house official at NBC News.
Antoni was nominated for the role in August after President Donald Trump dismissed the previous BLS chief, Erika Mcentarfer, in the wake of a bad job report.
This report has shown that the United States only added 73,000 jobs in July and reflected deep revisions in previous months. At the time of the report, he showed that employment growth for May was revised from 144,000 to only 19,000. He also marked the creation of jobs from June 147,000 to only 14,000.
Trump said, without evidence, that the June job report was “rigged to make the Republicans, and I have looked bad.”
“I was informed that the” job numbers “of our country are produced by a named Biden, Dr. Erika Mcentarfer, the labor statistics commissioner, who simulated the job figures before the elections to try to stimulate the chances of Kamala’s victory,” said Trump.
The president said that Antoni “would ensure that the released figures are honest and accurate”.
Several former commissioners of the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that shortly after the dismissal of MCENTARFER according to which the head of labor statistics does not have a role in the compilation of the monthly reports of jobs and is not informed of its content only shortly before its publication.
Contributor to the 2025 project, Antoni was supported by Steve Bannon for the position. Antoni was skeptical of the data that BLS produced.
As a chief economist of the Conservative Heritage Foundation, Antoni has also written a number of documents for the reflection group which have been complementary to the Trump administration policies.
Antoni’s appointment was examined after the White House said he was a “passer -by” at the Capitol Building during the insurrection on January 6, 2021.
An interview he gave to Fox Business Network on August 4, before his appointment, also drew the attention of businesses and markets. Antoni said the agency should suspend the publication of the monthly employment report, rather publishing quarterly data until the reports are more “exact”.
The White House later said that it remained “the plan” to continue publishing the monthly employment numbers.
The data produced by the office is considered to be the gold stallion in the world and is massively important for businesses, decision-makers and government agencies. Without this, the real condition of the American economy could be more difficult to determine.
Due to the magnitude of the American economy and the response rates to BLS surveys, there can often be delays in data collection. But this discrepancy does not imply any act or manipulation.
Antoni did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
In a press release, the president of the heritage foundation, Kevin Roberts, said: “Dr. EJ Antoni continues to be one of the strongest economic minds in the country. EJ’s immense capacities and the insightful economic analysis have not changed – and we are very proud to have it in our team.”
Roberts said that Antoni “will continue to” reform the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
