Trump Nominates Bureau of Labor Statistics Critic to Replace Fired Agency Head

The Washington Post

12:15 JST, August 12, 2025

President Donald Trump will nominate the top economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he said Monday on social media, replacing the previous commissioner that the president fired after a report revealed a weaker-than-expected job market.

E.J. Antoni, a staunch critic of the agency, had emerged in recent days as a favorite candidate among some influential Trump advisers, including Stephen K. Bannon. He has questioned the legitimacy of the agency’s data over the past year.

“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 posted on Truth Social. “E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST AND ACCURATE.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Antoni would replace former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, whom Trump fired in early August after the release of a bleak labor market report that revised May and June figures downward by 258,000 jobs. Trump accused McEntarfer, without evidence, of manipulating data for political gain and removed her from the role. McEntarfer was appointed by President Joe Biden to the position for what is usually a four-year term that often spans presidential terms.

Antoni has a PhD in economics from Northern Illinois University and contributed to Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation policy blueprint that laid out many of the strategies that the Trump administration has followed since taking office. He is a fellow at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a conservative economic group helmed in part by informal Trump adviser Stephen Moore.

The BLS is an agency within the Labor Department with a Senate-confirmed commissioner. The agency is independent and produces nonpartisan data on jobs, prices, wages and other topics that is used widely, including by the Federal Reserve to set interest rates – as well as the president, Congress and businesses trying to assess the state of the economy.

Antoni’s attacks on BLS have been frequent over the past year. Last fall, Antoni wrote that jobs data from the Biden administration had become “unreliable,” following the release of routine revisions to labor market data that showed had created 818,000 jobs fewer than previously reported.

The Labor Department routinely revises jobs data incorporating its latest data to provide more accurate information about the state of the economy. Early versions of the jobs report rely on larger business that respond quickly to surveys, while responses from smaller businesses – often more affected by economic headwinds – filter in later.

“There are better ways to collect, process, and disseminate data – that is the task for the next BLS commissioner,” Antoni wrote in a post on X following McEntarfer’s firing. “Only consistent delivery of accurate data in a timely manner will rebuild the trust that has been lost over the last several years.”

Improving the accuracy of BLS data would require more BLS funding that could go toward improving business and household survey response rates or developing new data collection methods, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the conservative think tank the American Action Forum, a conservative-leaning think tank. Antoni could face challenges implementing changes to the processes he has criticized, he said.

“In my experience, confirmed positions are where opinions go to die,” Holtz-Eakin said.

Some economists, including Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, described Antoni as unfit for the position.

“He’s utterly unqualified and as partisan as it gets,” Veuger said.

McEntarfer’s firing sparked widespread concern across the political spectrum about the integrity of the agency’s data moving forward, with economists across the political spectrum admonishing Trump for the move.

“The administration has handled this very poorly, because they openly accused the BLS of rigging the data. And there’s zero evidence of manipulation,” Holtz-Eakin said.

Bill Beach, who served as BLS commissioner during Trump’s first term, and denounced Trump’s allegations that McEntarfer manipulated jobs data, said the next commissioner has “a lot of work” to do to restore trust in the agency.

“We need a St. Peter. Someone who is a beyond doubt a good person,” Beach said.

Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, had recommended Antoni, for the job in recent days. Bannon said last week on his War Room podcast Antoni “almost single-handedly took [the BLS] down by going through their numbers.”

Antoni has also praised the Trump administration’s work trimming federal government jobs as well as tougher immigration enforcement. Antoni wrote last week “recent employment data” suggests that Americans are taking the jobs that undocumented immigrants tend to work. Other economists say there is not evidence that U.S. born workers are filling those jobs.

In recent days, Antoni also made a television appearance touting the administration’s economic agenda in a joint interview on Fox Business with longtime Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore.