Trump, seeking a data boost, names a new statistics chief

President Donald Trump announced Monday that he would nominate EJ Antoni, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trump fired the previous commissioner of the agency after it reported weak job growth.

- TONY ROMM BEN CASSELMAN LYDIA DEPILLIS

Mr Antoni, who would need to be confirmed by the Senate, has previously criticised the bureau and questioned its methods and reports. His nomination underscored Trump's attempts to place his allies in control of a key repository of data about the nation’s hiring, wages and prices.

Earlier this month, Trump fired the previous commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, who was confirmed on a bipartisan basis to the post in 2024. An economist who holds a doctorate, McEntarfer had been a career civil servant at federal statistics agencies for years before assuming the helm at the bureau, and her dismissal was met with both outrage and sadness across the political spectrum.

Her firing came after the release of new figures showing that job growth had been far weaker than previously reported. The bureau revised down the number of jobs created in May and June by 258,000, an unusually large revision that provoked Trump's ire.

Without providing any evidence, Trump claimed that Ms McEntarfer had “rigged” the federal hiring data to harm him politically. The firing raised concerns about how Trump might handle future releases of economic data, with the latest monthly report on consumer prices scheduled to arrive yesterday morning. That gauge is expected to show an uptick in inflation partly because of the president's expanding trade war.