"Utterly unqualified": Trump BLS pick gets panned by conservative economists

Driving the news: Trump announced Antoni as the next BLS commissioner a week after firing the previous head, Erika McEntarfer, which he did after jobs data showed cracks in the economy.

The president's decision to effectively turn the nonpartisan agency into an outpost of the White House makes vital economic data unreliable, economists of varying political stripes have said.

What they're saying: Antoni's fellow conservatives criticized his record as chief economist at the right-wing Heritage Foundation's Hermann Center for the Federal Budget.

• Antoni's "work at Heritage has frequently included elementary errors or nonsensical choices that all bias his findings in the same partisan direction," Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Axios' Courtenay Brown and Emily Peck.

Dave Hebert, an economist at the conservative American Institute for Economic Research, wrote in a post on X that he's worked with Antoni before and implored the Senate to block the nomination.

• "I've been on several programs with him at this point and have been impressed by two things: his inability to understand basic economics and the speed with which he's gone MAGA," Hebert said.

Conservative economists have cited examples of Antoni "appearing to misunderstand" the data he would be responsible for as BLS head.

• Daniel Di Martino, a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, showed an instance of Antoni citing the rising number of Americans who aren't in the labor force without accounting for the role of the aging population.
• "This is one of the many elementary errors that show me Mr Antoni is unqualified for the labor market data collection and analysis role he was nominated to," Di Martino wrote on X.

Jessica Riedl, a senior Manhattan Institute fellow, shared another example from X, in which Antoni appeared not to know that the BLS' measure of import prices did not account for the impact of tariffs.

• "The articles and tweets I've seen him publish are probably the most error-filled of any think tank economist right now," she wrote. "I hope we see better at BLS."

Economists who lean left also criticized the nomination.

• Jason Furman, who chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama, wrote on X: "I don't think I have ever publicly criticized any Presidential nominee before. But E.J. Antoni is completely unqualified to be BLS Commissioner."

Economists also decried Antoni's suggestion that he would suspend the jobs report.

• "That would [be] a serious mistake in my estimation. It would only fuel critiques of a politicization of job market data and likely result in volatility across asset classes," RSM US chief economist Joe Brusuelas told Axios.

Friction point: "President Trump selected Dr. E.J. Antoni III to restore America's trust in the jobs data that has had major issues, without any real attempt at resolution, for years," said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson. "Antoni's education and vast experience as an economist has prepared him to produce accurate public data for businesses, households and policymakers to inform their decision-making."

• Antoni and the Heritage Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Catch up quick: Trump condemned the BLS on Aug. 1, claiming that a worse-than-expected jobs report was "rigged."

Reality check: There is no evidence to suggest McEntarfer, a Biden appointee who has been in the post since 2024, interfered with the data for political purposes.