Overview

• President Trump tapped Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni to replace Erika McEntarfer after firing her over a weak July jobs report and large revisions to prior months’ data.
• Antoni told Fox News Digital he wants to halt the legally mandated monthly jobs report until more “accurate, though less timely” quarterly figures are available.
• Prominent economists from across the spectrum, including Jason Furman and Jessica Riedl, have challenged Antoni’s experience and warned his partisan background risks politicizing BLS statistics.
• The White House maintains it will continue issuing monthly employment figures to restore public trust, and experts say an executive order would be needed to pause the report, likely provoking market backlash.
• BLS career staff and former commissioners stress that internal professional norms and technical procedures make overt data manipulation highly unlikely under any new leadership.