President Trump's nomination of Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics drew bipartisan criticism from economists, according to Axios. Conservative economists criticized Antoni’s work for containing basic errors, partisan bias, and a poor understanding of economics, urging the Senate to block his nomination. Others cited his failure to account for aging population effects in labor data and his misunderstanding of import price measures, calling his work highly error-filled. Economists also warned that suspending the jobs report would politicize labor data and cause market volatility. The White House defended Antoni as qualified to restore public confidence in jobs data. There is no evidence that McEntarfer interfered with data for political purposes.
