From CNBC:
“I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Highly Respected Economist, Dr. E.J. Antoni, as the next Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday evening.
Just to clarify, Dr. Antoni declared (with St. Onge) a recession started in 2022 [1]. And another recession in starting in July or August 2024 –[2], [3]– without ever having declared the recession of 2022 ended. Taken literally, he believes we have been — and remain even today — in recession.
EJ Antoni: Source: Heritage Foundation, accessed 8/7/2025.
For the record:
EJ Antoni/Heritage: “Back from the Brink: Trump’s Economy Soars Instead of Crashing”
The Great Replacement “Theory” * Comes to Economics at Heritage
EJ Antoni Redefines Recession as What the American People Feel
EJ Antoni Worries about the Gap between CES NFP and CPS Employment
Son of ShadowStats: “Government economic figures hide the truth about the economy”
Did Government Employment Account for Most of September’s Employment Gains?
Lessons in Why We Don’t Judge Recessions on the Basis of GDP
The Great Replacement “Theory” * Comes to Economics at Heritage
“we never left the recession of March 2020 and … everything has been getting gradually worse”
The Pete Hegseth / RFK Jr of the BLS… Oof…
Hey Chinny you got it wrong. He is going to be the BS commissioner
The BLS is a politically dead organization. Drumpf and his handlers screwed up here. Data will be mocked and truther politics which was the real reason for his bogus rise, will destroy their utter being. A anti Trump populism is rising.
Of course, the evidence you (Menzie) have offered to show little Antoni’s disqualification for a job like BLS commissioner is evidence of his qualification in the felon-in-chief administration.
Yes, little Antoni is a serial liar, but an equally important qualification in the felon administration is that he’s a media whore. Bill compared little Antoni to Hegseth, and for good reason. Hegseth drew the felon’s attention by being on screen at Fox. Little Antoni sprays dishonest right-wing “analysis” like a hose emptying a honey truck*. His feverish pace of lying is as important as the lies themselves. That pace gives evidence that he can be trusted in public; the lie will be ready, no matter the question, the audience or the damage the lie may cause.
That ability, to lie fluently, vigorously and without hesitation, is among the most important qualifications for made men in the felon’s gang and in Republican potics generally.
To repeat my earlier rant, the BLS Commissioner is much more than an economist. Running a large, high-pressure organization, in cooperation with other government agencies, on deadine, requires enormous knowledge and experience, none of which little Antoni has. Who does have the needed qualifications? William J. Wiatrowski, Acting Commissioner does. He’ll do the real work and little Antoni will do the lying.
Until Wiatrowski can’t stomach the lies anymore. Then, the real work will get gummed up, witches will be hunted, scapegoats scapegoated, whipping boys whipped, and more lies will be told to cover up earlier lies AND the failure to do the real work of the BLS. It’s who we are now.
*Not a honey truck like in the great maple syrup robbery. A more euphemistic kind of “honey truck”. You’d know what I mean if you had ever gotten stuck behind one in traffic. The spray out of a euphemistic “honey truck” is much faster than from an actual truck full of honey. Much faster.