Trump fires commissioner of labor statistics to be fired after weak jobs figures

[Anonymous]

New BLS Leader EJ Antoni Proposes To Pause Monthly Jobs Data Reports


I guess this is like the Wizard of Oz in the play/movie "the wiz" - don't bring me no bad news

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where did Antononi do his PhD? His bio doesn't mention the university at all and his bio is all random Texas right wing stuff and Heritage Foundation. Is his PhD some online degree?

https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd

It's on his LinkedIn page.

[Anonymous]

Why do all his hires look like Dr. Evil? They are so cartoonish!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where did Antononi do his PhD? His bio doesn't mention the university at all and his bio is all random Texas right wing stuff and Heritage Foundation. Is his PhD some online degree?

https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd

It's on his LinkedIn page.

Northern Illinois University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman "the paranoid style in American economics." Trump is killing the credibility of American institutions.

Most economists found this report entirely credible. The BLS has a sterling reputation for careful, objective analysis, and as I said, Friday’s report brought the official estimates into line with other evidence. What about those revisions? As Jared Berstein explained in a Substack post yesterday, revisions are normal. Without getting too deep into the weeds, the BLS wants to be timely, so it issues preliminary reports based on incomplete data, then routinely revises them as more data come in. Revisions tend to be especially large around turning points; what we saw Friday is exactly what we’d expect if the economy is in fact experiencing a significant slowdown, which would show up more strongly in revised data than in the initial reports.

But Donald Trump screamed “conspiracy” and fired the head of the BLS, because of course he did:

I don’t want to spend much time debunking Trump’s claim that there was a conspiracy to make the job numbers look bad. Suffice it to say that rigging the job numbers would be a complicated process, requiring the cooperation of many people, and we’d almost surely have whistleblowers telling us that it was happening. In fact, we will know that it’s happening when, as seems highly likely, Trump’s people politicize the BLS.

And as I said, independent indicators also point to a job slowdown. For example, Automatic Data Processing, which does many companies’ payrolls, produces independent estimates of private employment. People I know who follow these things closely consider ADP’s numbers noisy and less reliable than BLS, but if BLS were rigging the numbers to hide the glories of the Trump economy, we’d expect to see that hidden Trump boom in the ADP estimates. We don’t.

Krugman should get deep into the weeds so then MAGA might grasp the fact they don’t understand statistics and large scale data collection. They’re total morons! They should stick with what they know…. mRNA vaccine production.

Krugman recently said it’s so bad that he won’t see a full recovery in his lifetime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: New BLS Leader EJ Antoni Proposes To Pause Monthly Jobs Data Reports


I guess this is like the Wizard of Oz in the play/movie "the wiz" - don't bring me no bad news

Sure, Antoni. Businesses and investors would rather have no numbers at all rather than variable numbers.

What a bozo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Look for the data collection methodology to completely change. Trust nothing.

Good newspapers will refuse to report it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: New BLS Leader EJ Antoni Proposes To Pause Monthly Jobs Data Reports


I guess this is like the Wizard of Oz in the play/movie "the wiz" - don't bring me no bad news

Sure, Antoni. Businesses and investors would rather have no numbers at all rather than variable numbers.

What a bozo.

This is done for an audience of one. Business are under the control of Trump. So job numbers really do not matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Likelihood the Heritage Foundation tool will get through the nomination process? I can’t imagine the BLS staff working under someone so blatantly political and who has openly criticized the economists at the agency.

100% he will get through and he does not need a staff. The 648 million budget of the BLS can be slashed. Maybe just enough money for a commissioner, personal staff and offices. So maybe a budget of 10 million.

The Republican Congress isn't taking its advise and consent role seriously anymore. Letting Hegseth and RFK Jr through was just the beginning. They're hardly going to raise a peep about a BLS role that most Americans have never heard of.

MAGA GOP DO NOT CARE. THEY ARE 100% IN ON ALL OF THIS. THERE IS NO LINE.

Shouting because people need to realize, that the GOP loves Trump, they love authoritarianism, the live the corruption, they do not care who gets hurt. That’s the reality, now it’s time to move on. We don’t have to wonder about their morals, their patriotism—they’ve made their depravity clear. Let’s focus on resisting!

[Anonymous]

Why spend so much money on BLS? Anything released by the Trump appointees will be fake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why spend so much money on BLS? Anything released by the Trump appointees will be fake.

I mean, would you rather just spend the money in gold-leaf for the ballroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman "the paranoid style in American economics." Trump is killing the credibility of American institutions.

Most economists found this report entirely credible. The BLS has a sterling reputation for careful, objective analysis, and as I said, Friday’s report brought the official estimates into line with other evidence. What about those revisions? As Jared Berstein explained in a Substack post yesterday, revisions are normal. Without getting too deep into the weeds, the BLS wants to be timely, so it issues preliminary reports based on incomplete data, then routinely revises them as more data come in. Revisions tend to be especially large around turning points; what we saw Friday is exactly what we’d expect if the economy is in fact experiencing a significant slowdown, which would show up more strongly in revised data than in the initial reports.

But Donald Trump screamed “conspiracy” and fired the head of the BLS, because of course he did:

I don’t want to spend much time debunking Trump’s claim that there was a conspiracy to make the job numbers look bad. Suffice it to say that rigging the job numbers would be a complicated process, requiring the cooperation of many people, and we’d almost surely have whistleblowers telling us that it was happening. In fact, we will know that it’s happening when, as seems highly likely, Trump’s people politicize the BLS.

And as I said, independent indicators also point to a job slowdown. For example, Automatic Data Processing, which does many companies’ payrolls, produces independent estimates of private employment. People I know who follow these things closely consider ADP’s numbers noisy and less reliable than BLS, but if BLS were rigging the numbers to hide the glories of the Trump economy, we’d expect to see that hidden Trump boom in the ADP estimates. We don’t.

Krugman should get deep into the weeds so then MAGA might grasp the fact they don’t understand statistics and large scale data collection. They’re total morons! They should stick with what they know…. mRNA vaccine production.

Krugman recently said it’s so bad that he won’t see a full recovery in his lifetime.

He also did a post about how some Heritage foundation guy Stephen Moore sends op Eds to papers who print them (Kansas City Star) but that a reader noticed that some of the numbers seemed wrong and then others checked and all the numbers were nonsensical. Most newspapers and people are financially illiterate so these things keep floating along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: New BLS Leader EJ Antoni Proposes To Pause Monthly Jobs Data Reports


I guess this is like the Wizard of Oz in the play/movie "the wiz" - don't bring me no bad news

Doesn't matter. They were discussing this morning on Squawk on the Street if the numbers should be believed. The consensus was either no, or uncertainty. They said they would rely on data put out by individual companies they were interested in investing.

[Anonymous]

When the data are negative, Trump's pick prefers to suspend the data...

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/12/trump-bls-antoni-jobs-report-data.html

Trump pick for BLS commissioner recently called for suspending monthly jobs report
Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni said he supports the Bureau of Labor Statistics releasing quarterly jobs report data, instead of its traditional monthly reports.
President Donald Trump said he will nominate Antoni as BLS commissioner to replace Erika McEntarfer, whom Trump fired hours after the BLS reported slower-than-anticipated July job growth.
Antoni, in a Fox News Digital interview, questioned the accuracy of the monthly reports, which are key economic indicators that Wall Street investors and economists rely on.

[Anonymous]

Data wonks warn of lasting damage as Trump weighs shake-up of government statistics collection
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/12/donald-trump-government-statistics-00505923
Statisticians are worried Trump’s actions targeting statistics agencies could permanently undermine trust in federal data.