President Donald Trump's announcement of Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni as his nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is an ominous signal to Americans and investors, according to one analyst.
In a Tuesday article, Jonathan V. Last — an editor for anti-Trump conservative site The Bulwark — opined that Trump's appointment of a loyalist who is replacing someone he fired for publishing unflattering jobs numbers was meant to send a not-so-subtle message: That when it comes to economic data, the truth is subjective.
"E.J. Antoni's nomination isn't designed to assure markets, the Fed, or the business community," Last wrote at the top of his article. "It's designed to provoke them. And force them to submit."
Last went on to note that Antoni is somewhat of a neophyte in the economics field compared to his predecessors at the BLS, and has virtually no experience outside of writing a handful of op-eds for conservative websites and a few Fox News appearances. He then warned readers not to think of Antoni's elevation atop BLS as "preposterous," but as a provocation.
"I’m here to tell you that this is not preposterous, at all. It’s sinister," Last wrote. "Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s waging war on the very idea of truth. And he’s winning."
According to the Bulwark editor, Trump hired Antoni specifically because he didn't want to reassure people of the government's commitment to accurate data. Instead, Last posited that the administration is explicitly "making a promise that government data will no longer be trustworthy."
"Trump is promising that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is now the Ministry of Truth. He literally said it, out loud," Last wrote, referencing George Orwell's 1984. "And how did the markets react to this promise? They shrugged. As of this writing, the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P are all up."
Click here to read Last's full article in The Bulwark.