E.J. Antoni Tapped As Trump’s New Bureau Of Labor Statistics Chief

Last night, President Donald Trump announced that he had selected E.J. Antoni to be commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He will replace the fired Erica McEntarfer, who was most well-known for the downward revisions in the monthly jobs reports during the last year of the Biden Administration. Hopefully, Antoni will bring consistency and trust back to these numbers. The numbers are used worldwide and are critical.

I am a huge fan of EJ Antoni @RealEJAntoni

I started retweeting his account when he only had 3,000 followers. He is now at over 79,000+ followers and has become a rockstar PhD economist, a regular on the cable news shows and Steve Bannon’s podcast. pic.twitter.com/g2uB1CTJeL

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) August 11, 2025

Can we just say that E.J. Antoni may not be the New York Times’ cup of tea, especially since Donald Trump likes him:

President Trump announced on Monday that he would nominate an economist, E.J. Antoni, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, having dismissed the previous commissioner following the release of data that showed sluggish job creation over the past several months.

Mr. Antoni, who currently serves as chief economist at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, would need to be confirmed by the Senate in order to assume the post.

The previous commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, is a Ph.D economist who served for decades at the Census Bureau before the Senate confirmed her nomination on a bipartisan basis in early 2024 by a vote of 86-8. Mr. Trump fired Ms. McEntarfer earlier this month, after the agency released new figures showing that job growth had been far weaker than previously reported. The agency revised down the number of jobs created in June and May by 258,000, an unusually large revision that provoked Mr. Trump. Without evidence, the president claimed that Ms. McEntarfer had “rigged” the federal hiring data to harm the president politically.

Miss McEntarfer’s numbers were not consistent, accurate or reliable, which is kind of important for both an economist and a statistician.
Remember the downward revisions month after month? Our Deanna noticed and wrote all about it. Read it here. The Bureau of Labor Statistics was making the U.S. look bad.

The New York Times felt firing the BLS chief jeopardized the credibility of our country’s economic data. Conversely, inconsistent and unreliable data doesn’t enhance our credibility either.

Until today, E.J. Antoni was a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. From that website, here is his biography:

E.J. Antoni, PhD is the Chief Economist, and Richard Aster Fellow, in The Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget

His work has been featured with a variety of news outlets including Fox News and Fox Business, Wall Street Journal, Townhall, Bloomberg, Daily Caller, National Review, CNBC, Washington Times, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, The Federalist, and others. He is a daily guest on news and business television and regularly appears on many podcasts and radio programs, including the nationally syndicated VINCE Show, where he is the in-house economist.

Dr. Antoni’s work has been featured with numerous think tanks and institutes including Unleash Prosperity, where he is a senior fellow. He also frequently presents his research in testimony before the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. Previously, he was an economist at Texas Public Policy Foundation and has taught courses ranging from labor economics to money and banking. Antoni holds master’s and doctoral degrees in Economics and regularly speaks at colleges and financial institutions.

The writers at the NY Times are not the only critics:

The easiest way to get ahead in Washington is to be a hack and pledge total loyalty to Trump, which is how you end up with dumb people like Oren Cass or EJ Antoni elevated to positions of extreme power

— Joey Politano ️‍ (@JosephPolitano) August 11, 2025

I don’t know and I am just kind of spit balling here, but it seems to me that The Chief of the Bureau wouldn’t do data collection. The Chief would set the policies and parameters.

He does understand what a job is and how Biden was destroying the middle class:

The Washington Examiner got to the nub of the problem: Incompetence.

Trump’s move drew widespread criticism, but Antoni was a vocal defender. Speaking with the Washington Examiner on Aug. 5, he said he was only surprised that such a move had taken so long.

“Just the timing is very unfortunate because it makes it look like you’re just firing the person because you weren’t happy with the numbers as opposed to firing for incompetence, which I think has been the case for a couple of years now,” Antoni said.

Though he disagreed with Trump’s allegation of “shenanigans,” Antoni said he did believe previous job reports were faulty due to “general incompetence.” Antoni pointed to the low survey response as illustrating McEntarfer’s poor performance in the role.

None of the other journalists mentioned that Mr. Antoni noted McEntarfer’s incompetence.

Congratulations to E.J. Antoni!

Featured Image: Senate Judiciary Committee/Screenshot/cropped/Public Domain

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