White Home withdraws E.J. Antoni nomination to steer Bureau of Labor Statistics

The White Home is withdrawing the nomination of E.J. Antoni to go the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a White Home official confirmed to CBS Information.

The official didn’t present a cause for the withdrawal on Tuesday, however mentioned Antoni was a “good economist” and that President Trump would announce a brand new nominee within the close to future.

CNN was first to report the nomination had been withdrawn.

In an announcement, Antoni thanked the president however mentioned: “It’s unlucky that there are different elected officers who lack the braveness to assist this commonsense agenda of actual change in Washington.”

Antoni was nominated for the position by Mr. Trump in August, after the president fired former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer earlier within the month following a weaker-than-expected jobs report, which he blamed her for.

Mr. Trump on the time described the report, which confirmed employers added 73,000 jobs in July — which fell under predictions, as “a shock,” and mentioned a sizeable revision displaying 258,000 fewer jobs had been created in Could and June than beforehand reported was a “main mistake.”

Mr. Trump didn’t cite any proof for his claims, and the BLS incessantly revises its studies.

The numbers are sometimes revised as a result of not all recipients reply to BLS surveys instantly. When extra companies report information after the month-to-month report is launched, that results in revisions — each up and down.

The identical day his nomination was introduced, Antoni urged in an interview on Fox Information Digital that the BLS ought to droop its month-to-month jobs report and as a substitute “hold publishing the extra correct, although much less well timed, quarterly information.”  

Antoni is a fellow on the conservative Heritage Basis assume tank, and he holds a doctorate in economics from Northern Illinois College. He has defended Mr. Trump’s financial insurance policies previously and had criticized the BLS on quite a few events previous to his nomination. He final yr referred to as the BLS’ medical health insurance figures “phoney baloney” and posted on social media that “the ‘L’ is silent” in BLS’ title.

“DOGE must take a chainsaw to the BLS…,” he wrote in a November put up on X.

“There are higher methods to gather, course of, and disseminate information—that’s the activity for the following BLS commissioner, and solely constant supply of correct information in a well timed method will rebuild the belief that has been misplaced over the past a number of years,” he wrote shortly after Mr. Trump fired the previous BLS chief.

Joe Walsh,

Aimee Picchi,

Kaia Hubbard and

Olivia Rinaldi

contributed to this report.