Washington — President Trump announced E.J. Antoni as his nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Monday , after he fired the former commissioner earlier this month, blaming her for a weaker-than-expected jobs report.

Antoni is a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, and he holds a doctorate in economics from Northern Illinois University. He's defended Mr. Trump's economic policy moves in the past, including the president's tariff strategy . He has also criticized the BLS for low response rates and questioned the agency's methodology, calling its health insurance figures "phoney baloney" last year and at one point joking that "the 'L' is silent" in BLS' name.

"DOGE needs to take a chainsaw to the BLS...," he wrote in a November X post

See Full Page