President Donald Trump has announced plans to choose E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, as the new leader of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This decision follows Trump’s sudden dismissal of the previous commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, after the release of a jobs report that did not match the administration’s claims about a strong economy.
The events leading to this nomination started when new jobs data showed that job growth in the United States had dropped to its lowest level in 16 years. Rather than accepting the numbers, President Trump fired McEntarfer without giving a reason. He then made multiple claims, without proof, that the data was “rigged,” “ridiculous,” “fake,” and a “scam.”
