Trump Withdraws His Nominee to Lead Bureau of Labor Statistics

Trump Withdraws His Nominee to Lead Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Trump Administration withdrew the nomination of conservative economist E.J. Antoni to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

A White House official said the president will soon nominate a new candidate to lead the BLS. 

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Trump nominated Antoni, the former chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and a longtime critic of BLS’s handling of jobs data, in August. The nomination came shortly after Trump fired BLS chief Erika McEntarfer on Aug. 1, midway through her term, following a weak jobs report. Antoni had called for the removal of McEntarfer, echoing other Trump allies.

Previously, Trump had claimed that McEntarfe was politically biased. But many criticized the President for blaming the messenger.

GoLocal contributor Gary Sasse wrote after the firing in August, “Because these results differed from President Trump’s economic message, the BLS Commissioner was summarily dismissed. No evidence was presented that the Commissioner manipulated statistics. Nevertheless, the President accused her of rigging the 'numbers to make ME look bad.’  This decision and its justification jolted confidence in the credibility of U.S. economic data.”

It is not known who the Trump administration will put forth next.