Trump taps conservative economist to lead statistics agency
President Trump plans to nominate conservative economist E.J. Antoni to lead one of the government’s top statistical agencies, 10 days after firing the previous chief over a disappointing jobs report.
Antoni is an economist at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation. He previously worked for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.
“Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
If confirmed by the Senate, Antoni would take control of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which is responsible for producing the monthly jobs report as well as tracking inflation.
Trump fired the previous commissioner of labor statistics, Erika McEntarfer, less than two weeks ago, after the bureau reported weaker-than-expected job gains for May, June and July. The president said the numbers were rigged to make him look bad — a claim that was widely dismissed by independent economists.
The BLS post is typically held by apolitical technocrats who serve terms that span presidential administrations. The choice of a partisan economist to oversee the bureau is likely to raise fresh questions about the reliability of market-moving government data.
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Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.
