The White House is withdrawing the nomination of E.J. Antoni to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a White House Official confirmed to CBS News.
The official did not provide a reason for the withdrawal on Tuesday, but said Antoni was a “brilliant economist” and that President Trump would announce a new nominee in the near future.
CNN was first to report the nomination had been withdrawn.
Antoni was nominated for the role by Mr. Trump in August, after the president fired former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer earlier in the month following a weaker-than-expected jobs report, which he blamed her for.
Mr. Trump at the time described the report, which showed employers added 73,000 jobs in July — which fell below predictions, as “a shock,” and said a sizeable revision showing 258,000 fewer jobs were created in May and June than previously reported was a “major mistake.”
Mr. Trump did not cite any evidence for his claims, and the BLS frequently revises its reports.
The numbers are often revised because not all recipients reply to BLS surveys immediately. When more businesses report data after the monthly report is released, that leads to revisions — both up and down.
The same day his nomination was announced, Antoni suggested in an interview on Fox News Digital that the BLS should suspend its monthly jobs report and instead “keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.”
Antoni is a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, and he holds a doctorate in economics from Northern Illinois University. He has defended Mr. Trump’s economic policies in the past and had criticized the BLS on numerous occasions prior to his nomination. He last year called the BLS’ health insurance figures “phoney baloney” and posted on social media that “the ‘L’ is silent” in BLS’ name.
“DOGE needs to take a chainsaw to the BLS…,” he wrote in a November post on X.
“There are better ways to collect, process, and disseminate data—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,” he wrote shortly after Mr. Trump fired the former BLS chief.