Trump Nominates Heritage Foundation Economist E. J. Antoni as Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner

President Donald Trump has nominated the Heritage Foundation’s chief economist, E. J. Antoni, as the new commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Before he assumed a role at the conservative think tank, Antoni was an economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He is also a senior fellow at Unleash Prosperity and received his Ph.D. in economics from Northern Illinois University in 2020.

The nomination comes days after the firing of former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who “faked” employment numbers for “political purposes,” Trump claimed. Trump accused McEntarfer of fudging numbers on the latest BLS monthly jobs report, which showed weak employment growth in July, and made a large downward revision to the number of jobs created in June and May.

The report was “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,” Trump said. “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!!!”

During a podcast appearance on Steve Bannon’s show hours before McEntarfer was fired, Antoni called the former commissioner “incompetent,” which he said “shows with the fact that the problems in the statistics — that first became evident all the way back in the spring of 2022 — those problems are still there.”

Some economists argued that Trump’s firing of McEntarfer could harm the BLS’s credibility. Former Trump-appointed BLS commissioner William Beach was one of them.

“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 in early August. “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.”

Trump ally Bannon advocated Antoni’s nomination and “told everybody in the administration that E.J. is the perfect guy at the perfect time to run the BLS,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg. Bannon described Antoni as “the guy that almost single-handedly took it down by going through their numbers.”

Before he was nominated, Antoni said that “everything [the next commissioner does] should be at the service of that mission — more accurate data, as timely as possible, as consistently as possible.” Antoni has also been a longtime critic of BLS’s data-collection methods.

The BLS should perform a “top to bottom” review of its data-collection and processing methods, Antoni said, and prioritize transparency.

“Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,” Trump said Monday on Truth Social. “I know E.J. Antoni will do an incredible job in this new role. Congratulations E.J.!”

Antoni’s nomination is now subject to the Senate confirmation process.