Summary
- White
House withdrew E.J. Antoni’s nomination for BLS head. - Antoni
faced criticism for questionable qualifications and partisan views. - Nomination
raised concerns about politicizing key economic data agencies.
Erika McEntarfer was sacked by Donald Trump in August after
the bureau released adjustments to its monthly jobs report that revealed
sluggish job growth over the summer. To replace her, Trump selected EJ Antoni,
a co-author of Project 2025 and top economist at the conservative Heritage
Foundation.
Both liberal and conservative economists expressed a rare
agreement upon Antoni’s nomination, arguing that he was too politicized to fill
the position. Antoni was a vocal opponent of the agency prior to his candidacy,
implying without proof that its data reporting was biased.
The retraction of Antoni’s nomination was deemed “good
news in and of itself” by Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the conservative
American Enterprise Institute.
“Antoni was genuinely unqualified and had clearly been
picked based on his willingness to produce highly partisan content,”
Veuger
said.
“That said, it remains to be seen what comes next.”
The reason behind the White House‘s decision to withdraw
Antoni’s nomination has not been disclosed. To formally assume the position,
Antoni would have needed Senate confirmation. According to reports, it would
have been difficult to get Antoni’s nomination through the chamber because key
senators, including Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, had declined
to meet with him.
The Senate “appears to have done its job and made it
clear it would reject someone who was exceedingly unqualified for the job of
BLS commissioner,” according to Harvard economist Jason Furman.
“I hope they go even further and demand nothing less than
someone who is very qualified for the job. We will see,”
he added.
In a statement, the White House said that Antoni “is a
brilliant patriot that will continue to do good work on behalf of our great
country”.
“President Trump is committed to fixing the longstanding
failures of the BLS that have undermined the public’s trust in critical
economic data,”
the White House said.
“The president plans to announce a new
nominee very soon.”
In a social media post after the White House withdrew
Antoni’s nomination, the Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, said
that “it was undeniable that the BLS needs reform and [Antoni] was the right
man for the job”.
“Antoni continues to be one of the sharpest economic minds
in the country. EJ’s immense capabilities and insightful economic analysis have
not changed – and we’re very proud to have him on our team,” Roberts wrote.
Trump accused the bureau of “rigging” its July
employment report against him when he fired McEntarfer, claiming that the
bureau had exaggerated the number of new jobs added to the economy by 250,000.
However, the bureau claimed that the updates were provided by companies who
responded to its surveys, which it utilizes to gather data that is received
later, which is typical during unstable economic times.
Economists have generally stated that the bureau remains
impartial in spite of Trump’s attacks, stressing the need of having faith in
the agency because it provides data that influences markets and policy choices,
such as the state of the job market and inflation.
“The BLS is the gold standard around the world for reliable
and accurate economic data,”
Herbert added.
“Their integrity and independence
must be protected if they are to maintain their status as the premier source of
economic data in the world today.”
Michael Madowitz, an economist at the liberal Roosevelt
Institute and a former member of the data users advisory committee at the BLS,
said that the agency, when it’s doing its job properly, should be “beneficial
and boring”.
“There are parts of the US government that do economic
policy and parts that do public,”
Madowitz said.
“The concern until last night
was putting ideological policy folks in charge of the plumbing, which would
create lasting chaos.”
What did leading economists specifically say about Antoni?
Antoni characterized as a conservative ideologue rather than
a precise economist studying accuracy based on a history of manipulating data
to bolster politically-driven accounts that aligned with President Trump.
He falsely asserted that the U.S. economy was in a recession
since 2022 based on inflated measures of housing prices.
Economists remarked that Antoni had a tendency to misimply
statistics like labor force participation rates and import prices, while often
ignoring the broader economic context of falling population growth rates, which
had ramifications for economic growth.
He also suggested extreme paradigms, like ending Social
Security payments to workers, which drew concerns due to the BLS supervising
adjustments related to inflation that affect beneficiary payments.
