President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will nominate Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni as the next commissioner of the embattled Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,” the president posted on his Truth Social account. “I know E.J. Antoni will do an incredible job in this new role.”
The announcement comes a little more than a week after the president fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after claiming without evidence that she had rigged labor market data to boost Democrats.
The dismissal of McEntarfer — which stunned market participants and economists — created major challenges for an agency responsible for closely watched economic statistics on inflation and the labor market. That data features prominently in the Federal Reserve’s assessment of the economy.
Antoni joined the Heritage Foundation in 2022 and was promoted to chief economist in May. He was previously a fellow at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and worked as an economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
