The White House on Tuesday withdrew the nomination of E.J. Antoni, a conservative economist, to be the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Dr. E.J. Antoni is a brilliant economist and an American patriot that will continue to do good work on behalf of our great country," a White House official said in a statement to NBC News.
"President Trump is committed to fixing the longstanding failures at the BLS that have undermined the public’s trust in critical economic data. The President plans to announce a new nominee very soon,” the official added.
Antoni was nominated in August after President Donald Trump fired the previous BLS chief, Erika McEntarfer, in the wake of a poor jobs report.
That report found that the United States added only 73,000 jobs in July and reflected deep revisions to previous months’ numbers. At the time of the report, it found job growth for May was revised down from 144,000 to just 19,000. It also marked down June’s job creation from 147,000 to only 14,000.
Trump said, without evidence, that the June jobs report was “rigged in order to make the Republicans, and me, look bad.”
"I was just informed that our Country’s 'Jobs Numbers' are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory," Trump said.
He said Antoni would “ensure that the numbers released are honest and accurate.”
Multiple former commissioners of the Bureau of Labor Statistics said shortly after McEntarfer was fired that the head of labor statistics does not have a role in compiling the monthly jobs reports and is briefed on its contents only shortly before it is released to the public.
Antoni, a contributor to Project 2025, was backed by Steve Bannon for the post. Antoni has been a skeptic of the data the BLS produces.
As the chief economist for the conservative Heritage Foundation, Antoni also wrote a number of pieces for the think tank that were complimentary of the Trump administration’s policies.
Antoni’s nomination came under scrutiny after the White House said he was a “bystander” at the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
An interview he gave to Fox Business Network on Aug. 4, before his nomination, also drew the attention of businesses and the markets. Antoni said the agency should suspend issuing the monthly job report and instead publish quarterly data until the reports are more “accurate.”
The White House later said it remained “the plan” to keep publishing the monthly jobs numbers on time.
The data the bureau produces is considered the gold standard around the world and is massively important to businesses, policymakers and government agencies. Without it, the true condition of the U.S. economy might be harder to determine.
Because of the scale of the U.S. economy and response rates to BLS surveys, there can often be lags in data collection. But that lag does not imply any wrongdoing or manipulation.
Antoni did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., said, "I appreciated meeting with Dr. Antoni, and was looking forward to his hearing to further discuss ideas to reform BLS."
"As Chairman of the HELP Committee, I will work with President Trump to fix BLS so it can deliver accurate, reliable economic data to the American people," Cassidy added in his statement.
Cassidy was planning to hold a rare confirmation hearing for the BLS commissioner nominee, though no date had been set. Such hearings are not required for that post.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement: "Dr. E.J. Antoni continues to be one of the sharpest economic minds in the country. E.J.’s immense capabilities and insightful economic analysis have not changed—and we are very proud to have him on our team."
Roberts said Antoni "will keep calling for" reform at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
