What to Know About E.J. Antoni, Trump’s Nominee to Lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics

President Donald Trump recently nominated E.J. Antoni, chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, to be the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shortly after terminating Erika McEntarfer.

Antoni, who has a PhD in economics and has written countless articles and participated in numerous interviews, will need to be confirmed by the Senate before leading the influential statistics agency.

With a Republican majority in the upper chamber, Antoni has high odds of confirmation in the proceedings.

Here is what to know about the nominee.

Praise From Colleagues

Trump, writing in an Aug. 11 Truth Social post, said Antoni “will do an incredible job in this new role.”

“Our economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the numbers released are honest and accurate,” the president said.

Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation, called Trump’s selection “a stellar choice.”

“EJ Antoni is one of the sharpest economic minds in the nation—a fearless truth-teller who grasps that sound economics must serve the interests of American families, not globalist elites,” Roberts said in a statement.

Derrick Morgan, executive vice president of the foundation, complimented Antoni’s skill to “distill complex economic principles into clear language for all Americans.”

Stephen Moore, the co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, said on social media, “if anyone can fix this broken agency and give us accurate numbers,” it’s Antoni.

Frequent Data Critic

While the bureau recently captured the spotlight regarding employment revisions, the federal agency has been criticized for its data gathering efforts and overall quality, dating back to the previous administration.

Antoni had been one of these frequent, outspoken critics for years.

In an Aug. 4 X post, Antoni stated that there are superior methods available to gather the information needed for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“There are better ways to collect, process, and disseminate data,” he said. “That is the task for the next BLS commissioner, and only consistent delivery of accurate data in a timely manner will rebuild the trust that has been lost over the last several years.”

In December 2022, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve determined that job growth had been overstated by 1.1 million, based on state payroll employment data.

The revelation sparked questions about how the bureau could have made such an error.

At the time, Antoni pointed out to The Epoch Times that the regional central bank’s figures were more aligned with the bureau’s monthly household survey than the establishment portion of the non-farm payrolls report.

The establishment survey—Current Employment Statistics—interviews businesses and government agencies, effectively measuring the number of jobs. The household dataset—Current Population Survey—measures people, not jobs, removing duplication.

Since the pandemic, there has been a sizable divergence in the results. When the U.S. economy regained all the jobs lost during the public health crisis in June 2022, the household survey reported approximately three million new jobs. The establishment highlighted the creation of more than seven million new jobs.

It is not only employment statistics that Antoni has criticized.

Writing in March 2022 for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Antoni called the bureau’s recalculation of the Consumer Price Index an “Orwellian trick.”

At the time, the bureau updated the expenditure weights used in calculating the CPI methodology, taking effect in January 2023. The decision determined the extent to which various categories influence the overall index, reflecting shifts in consumer behavior.

“The new methodology has effectively reduced the change in the CPI, giving the illusion that inflation is lower than it really is,” Antoni wrote. “Don’t believe your lying eyes when you go to the grocery store, the gas station or the hardware store.”

Ultimately, according to Antoni, depending on government statistics is a herculean effort.

“It has become a very difficult call to make in a post-pandemic world where so many economic metrics have become unreliable due to the violent government interventions that began in 2020 and continued for a couple of years thereafter,” Antoni told The Epoch Times in September 2024.

Monthly or Quarterly Jobs Reports

Days before his nomination, Antoni proposed suspending the monthly payroll data. Instead, he suggested that the Bureau of Labor Statistics release the numbers on a quarterly basis.

If the federal agency is unclear how many jobs are being added or lost, it can be challenging for businesses to plan or for the Federal Reserve to conduct monetary policy, Antoni told Fox News Digital in an Aug. 4 interview.

“It’s a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately,” he said. “Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.”

Speaking to reporters at an Aug. 12 press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the current plan is to keep publishing monthly reports, which will provide “data that the American people can trust.”

Confidence in the bureau needs to be restored, and “new leadership can examine the means and methods of how the agency is collecting the figures,” she added.

“All of that is going to be done,” Leavitt said. “The goal … is to provide honest and good data for the American people to make very important economic decisions.”

Federal Reserve

In addition to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve has also been in Antoni’s sights.

“Seriously, just fire the whole Board of Governors at this point,” he said in an Aug. 8 X post, referencing the U.S. central bank’s $240 billion in paper losses.

In a follow-up post, Antoni argued that “the Fed is not America First,” pointing to the significant presence of foreign accounts in the Fed’s reverse repurchase agreements.

The Fed is paying more than $450 million in interest per day to financial institutions, with three-quarters of these entities being foreign. Reverse repurchase agreements are a strategy that involves selling securities to banks and then repurchasing them later to manage short-term interest rates and drain excess liquidity from the financial system.

Antoni called for abolishing the Federal Reserve in a September 2023 opinion piece, titled “Time to End the Fed and Its Mismanagement of Our Economy.”

“Since its founding, the Fed has stolen 98 percent of the value of a dollar,” Antoni co-wrote alongside economist Peter St Onge. It has used those profits to repetitively launch boom-bust cycles and to transfer trillions to the federal government, special interests, and wealthy borrowers.”

‘Ponzi Scheme’

Antoni has also highlighted the fiscal plight of the Social Security system.

A June report by the trustees of Social Security and Medicaid projects that funds for the retirement program will run dry in 2033, two years earlier than previously expected.

“This data underscores the need for lawmakers to take action to support the long-term viability of these programs,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

If Congress does not address the fiscal shortfall, automatic cuts totaling 23 percent will occur at that time.

Antoni believes Washington will eventually have to “sunset the program” for individuals retiring in 40 years.

“That doesn’t mean you need to touch benefits for people who are retired today. That’s not true. There’s plenty of money available to pay for folks who are already retired,” Antoni said in a December 2024 interview with a Houston radio show.

He also likened it to a “Ponzi scheme” as today’s workers are paying for current beneficiaries.

“Unless you are going to grow the number of investors at an exponential rate, that system is eventually going to collapse,” Antoni said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Antoni for comment.

Joseph Lord contributed to this story.