Trump Is Withdrawing His Controversial BLS Nominee

President Donald Trump is pulling his controversial nomination for rightwing economist E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The White House confirmed the switch-up following reports from CNN and The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying Trump “plans to announce a new nominee very soon.”

Antoni is “a brilliant economist and an American patriot that will continue to do good work on behalf of our great country,” a White House spokesperson said. “President Trump is committed to fixing the longstanding failures at the BLS that have undermined the public’s trust in critical economic data.”

Sources told both outlets that the Senate has received the paperwork necessary to withdraw the nomination.

The Heritage Foundation, where Antoni is the chief economist, maintained Antoni’s qualifications in a statement from its president, Kevin Roberts.

“It is undeniable that BLS needs reform and E.J. was the right man for the job,” Roberts said. “E.J. will keep calling for that reform and serving the interests of the American people from his invaluable role as chief economist at Heritage.”

Trump tapped Antoni to head the department last month after firing former BLS Commissioner Dr. Erika McEntarfer and accusing her, without evidence, of manipulating a jobs report to make him look bad.

“Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,” Trump said when announcing the nomination.

Antoni, who authored parts of Project 2025, has been critical of how the BLS collects data and posted about it on X after McEntarfer’s ousting. He also called for her firing during an appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast, agreeing with the host that they needed a “MAGA Republican” at BLS.

Following his nomination, economists raised concerns about Antoni’s allegiance to Trump, saying the BLS commissioner needs to be focused on real numbers without putting any spin on them.

“I don’t think I have ever publicly criticized any Presidential nominee before. But E.J. Antoni is completely unqualified to be BLS Commissioner,” Jason Furman, a top economic adviser in Barack Obama’s White House wrote on social media at the time. “He is an extreme partisan and does not have any relevant expertise. He would be a break from decades of nonpartisan technocrats.”

Antoni has also advocated for getting rid of social security, repeatedly slamming it as a “Ponzi scheme” during a radio interview from last year unearthed by The Washington Post.

More alarming reports about Antoni emerged in the weeks following his nomination. Both CNN and Wired reported on what appear to be Antoni’s since-deleted Twitter accounts, finding that the accounts were littered with sexually degrading posts on Kamala Harris, homophobic remarks and Trump-approved conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

An NBC investigation also found that Antoni was in the crowd during the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. In response to the report, the White House said Antoni was simply in town for meetings and was a “bystander to the events of January 6th, observing and then leaving the Capitol area.” There is no evidence that he entered the Capitol building.