Critics bemoaned President Donald Trump's decision to nominate a top Heritage Foundation economist as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Trump fired Erika McEntarfer from the role earlier this month after she published a disappointing July jobs report showing a significant economic slowdown and downward revisions to previous months' job numbers. An outraged Trump lashed out over the report and cited the fact that McEntarfer was a Biden appointee as part of his justification to oust her. He baselessly accused her of "rigging" the report.
On Monday evening, Trump announced he had nominated Dr. E.J. Antoni as her replacement. Antonu serves as the chief economist and Richard Aster fellow at The Heritage Foundation's Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget.
"I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Highly Respected Economist, Dr. E.J. Antoni, as the next Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE. I know E.J. Antoni will do an incredible job in this new role. Congratulations E.J.!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The announcement immediately incensed the internet.
Craig Shapiro, a macro-economics strategist, warned on X, "Conspiracy theory: CPI will come in hot tomorrow and Trump will say it was fake news and thankfully he now has the guy in there to fix the data."
The popular Republicans against Trump account wrote on X, "Next jobs report is going to be HUGE."
Jeremy Horpedahl, an associate professor at the University of Central Arkansas, warned on X ahead of the announcement, "This is a terrible idea. Antoni either massively misunderstands labor market data, or he is willing to lie repeatedly about after being corrected by dozens of economistsQuoteBrian Schwartz."
Spencer Hakimian, founder of Tolou Capital Management, wrote on X, "Lmao get ready for a +27 million job month in 2 weeks."
Matthew Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters, wrote on X: "The morning Trump fired the BLS commissioner, Antoni was on Steve Bannon’s show explaining that the lack of a 'MAGA Republican' in the post was 'why we continue to have all these data problems.'"
Brendan Duke, senior director of Federal Budget Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, wrote on X that "Antoni has distinguished himself with his lack of shame in producing viral dishonest analyses that have been criticized by honest conservative analysts. If he brings that lack of shame to the production official economic statistics, their reliability could be in question."
Rob Bon Vivant, a former senior corporate communications executive, noted on X, "Antoni took the job as Chief Economist for the Heritage Foundation in May. So another Trump lackey to lie and politicize critical, independent economic data."
And Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias wrote on X, "Antoni’s commentary on economic data over the past few years has been some of the absolute worst around. For the sake of the country I hope this guy is a huge liar and his various statements don’t reflect sincere incompetence."