[blog](blog): 2025-10-01 blog

.github/pull_request_template.md

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 - [ ] awk
 - [ ] C/C++/C#
 - [ ] Ruby
-- [ ] Python 
+- [ ] Markdown
+- [ ] Python
+
+## Operating System 
+
+- [ ] Android
+- [ ] Linux
+- [ ] Solaris
+- [ ] Unix
+- [ ] Windows
 
 ## Files added
 
@@ -55,4 +64,4 @@ Issue Number: N/A
 
 ## Other information
 
-<!-- Any other information that is important to this PR such as screenshots of how the component looks before and after the change -->
+<!-- Any other information that is important to this PR such as screenshots of how the component looks before and after the change -->

_posts/2025/10/2025-10-01-BLSNomineeBitesTheDust.md

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+---
+layout: post
+tags: [media, MSNBC News - Breaking News and News Today / Latest News, Steve Benen, The Rachel Maddow Show, MaddowBlog, “Ministry of Truth –  Democracy Reality and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”, CNN / Breaking News Latest News and Videos, NBC News - Breaking Headlines and Video Reports on World U.S. and Local Angles / NBC News, The New York Times (NYT) - Breaking News US News World News and Videos, WIRED - The Latest in Technology Science Culture and Business, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) - Breaking News Business Financial & Economic News World News and Video, Homepage / Media Matters for America, people, Erika McEntarfer / LinkedIn, organizations, Heritage Foundation, E.J. Antoni PhD / The Heritage Foundation, political parties, Democrat Party, Trumpian Party, universities, companies, foreign governments, state local governments, federal government, Constitution of the United States, U.S. Constitution - Article I / Library of Congress, U.S. Constitution - Article II / Library of Congress, U.S. Constitution - Article III / Library of Congress, U.S. Constitution - Article IV / Library of Congress, U.S. Constitution - Article V / Library of Congress, U.S. Constitution - Article VI / Library of Congress, U.S. Constitution - Article VII / Library of Congress, Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), US Courts, Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Board - Federal Reserve Act, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Department of Commerce (DOC), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Congress, Senate, John McCain – Deceased, House of Representatives, President of the United States (POTUS), White House (WH), Trump autocracy, Donald J Trump, President Donald Trump (45), President Donald Trump (47), President Trump (47) Administration, President Trump (47) Cabinet, press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, grifter, self-dealing, corruption, con artist, crime, cryptocurrency, criminal associates, Home - Stephen K Bannon’s War Room, criminal businesses, criminal media, criminal organizations, criminal partners]
+categories: [Donald Trump, Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antoni, Heritage Foundation]
+date: 2025-10-01 10:53
+excerpt: ''
+#image: 'BASEURL/assets/blog/img/.png'
+#description:
+#permalink:
+title: "Another One Bites the Dust: Trump’s Unqualified Nominee For Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antoni, Shot Down"
+---
+
+
+## [E.J. Antoni’s failed nomination makes the White House look even more incompetent](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/ej-antonis-failed-nomination-makes-white-house-look-even-incompetent-rcna234896)
+
+*It’s not often that [Senate](https://www.senate.gov/) [Republicans](https://www.gop.com/) muster the courage to tell [Donald Trump](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/) and his team, “Whoa, hold on, we can’t go that far.”*
+
+Oct. 1, 2025, 9:45 AM EDT
+By [Steve Benen](https://www.msnbc.com/author/steve-benen-ncpn433601)
+
+As a rule, the process surrounding [Donald Trump](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/)’s nominees is relatively efficient. The [president](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) taps a loyalist with dubious qualification; [Senate](https://www.senate.gov/) [Republicans](https://www.gop.com/) do what the [White House](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) tells them to do; and the nominees are confirmed to powerful positions that most shouldn’t have.
+
+But there are some exceptions to the rule. Indeed, the list of failed [Trump](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/) nominees [quietly become rather long](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/demise-trumps-nasa-pick-different-personnel-failures-rcna210461). The list includes [Matt Gaetz](https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/matt-gaetz-withdraws-trump-attorney-general-pick-rcna181207), [Dave Weldon](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/facing-bipartisan-opposition-white-house-abandons-outlandish-cdc-nomin-rcna196236), [Ed Martin](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-ed-martin-nomination-us-attorney-jan-6-rcna205197), [Dr. Janette Nesheiwat](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-surgeon-general-nominee-casey-means-janette-nesheiwat-rcna205476), [Chad Chronister](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-lost-choice-lead-dea-just-three-days-rcna182783), [Kathleen Sgamma](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/kathleen-sgamma-withdraws-jan-6-criticism-came-public--rcna200699), [Jared Isaacman](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/demise-trumps-nasa-pick-different-personnel-failures-rcna210461) and, as of this week, [E.J. Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd). [NBC News reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/ej-antoni-nomination-withdraw-trump-bls-rcna234833):
+
+> *The [White House](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) on Tuesday withdrew the nomination of [E.J. Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd), a conservative economist, to be the next commissioner of the [Bureau of Labor Statistics](https://www.bls.gov/). ... [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd), a contributor to [Project 2025]({% linkProject2025AuthorsOfDestruction.md %}), was backed by [Steve Bannon](https://warroom.org/) for the post.*
+
+For those unfamiliar with [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd) and his nomination, let’s take a minute to review [how we arrived at this point](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/ej-antoni-labor-statistics-trump-nominee-bls-rcna229399).
+
+A couple of weeks after [Trump](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/) responded to [his ugly record on jobs](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/us-job-growth-turns-ugly-summer-trumps-economic-agenda-falters-rcna229286) by [firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-responds-failure-create-jobs-firing-us-labor-statistics-chief-rcna222532) without cause, the [president](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) [introduced his own nominee](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/jan-6-revelations-trumps-labor-statistics-nominee-create-new-test-gop-rcna224959): [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd), the chief economist at the [Heritage Foundation](https://www.heritage.org/). Almost immediately, he was exposed as an almost cartoonishly poor choice.
+
+His [academic background](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/ej-antoni-who-bls-44f73217?mod=hp_lead_pos1), for example, left little doubt that he was spectacularly unqualified to lead the bureau. But there was no need to stop there: [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd) also had a record of [misunderstanding the very government data](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/business/trump-bls-ej-antoni.html) he was supposed to oversee; he’d signaled an interest in [moving away from](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/cooking-books-hiding-books-team-trump-puts-access-jobs-data-doubt-rcna224693) releasing monthly job reports; he’d [derided Social Security](https://www.mediamatters.org/social-security/trumps-bls-commissioner-nominee-ej-antoni-calls-social-security-ponzi-scheme) as a “Ponzi scheme”; and he’d helped craft the right-wing [Project 2025 blueprint](https://bsky.app/profile/thebulwark.com/post/3lwen55jkbk25) blueprint.
+
+There was a reason [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd) had been mocked by his contemporaries as “a joke.”
+
+Just when it seemed [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd)’s record couldn’t get much worse, [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/) reported that the [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/) nominee was also among the crowd outside the Capitol on [Jan. 6, 2021]({% link January6DocumentDocumentLinks.md %}). Soon after, [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/) and [Wired](https://www.wired.com/) separately reported on [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd)’s since-deleted [Twitter](https://twitter.com/) account, which featured sexually degrading attacks on [Kamala Harris](https://kamalaharris.com/), derogatory remarks about gay people, conspiracy theories and weird references to weapons used by Nazi Germany in World War II.
+
+After [Sen.](https://www.senate.gov/) [John McCain](https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/M000303)’s death, [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd) also reportedly wrote online, “I like a [senator](https://www.senate.gov/) who doesn’t die.”
+
+This came to public light in early September. In mid-September, [White House](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) press secretary [Karoline Leavitt insisted](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/pressed-weak-us-job-growth-white-house-line-comes-far-short-rcna230325) insisted that [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd) could be counted on to generate “truthful and honest data.” In late September, the [White House](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) pulled the plug on this fiasco.
+
+To be sure, part of what makes these developments notable is what unfolded on Capitol Hill. This is, after all, only the third time since [Election Day 2024](https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/2024presgeresults.pdf) when just enough [Senate](https://www.senate.gov/) [Republicans](https://www.gop.com/) mustered the courage to say, effectively, “Whoa, hold on, we can’t go that far,” following comparable reactions to Gaetz and Martin.
+
+But as the dust settles on this debacle, it’s also worth pausing to appreciate that the [Trump](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/) [White House](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) obviously didn’t bother to do its due diligence on [Antoni](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd), reinforcing concerns about rampant incompetence in the [West Wing](https://www.whitehouse.gov/).
+
+This post updates our [related earlier coverage](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/ej-antoni-labor-statistics-trump-nominee-bls-rcna229399).
+
+[Steve Benen](https://www.msnbc.com/author/steve-benen-ncpn433601) is a producer for "[The Rachel Maddow Show](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show)," the editor of [MaddowBlog](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show) and an [MSNBC](https://www.msnbc.com/) political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of ["Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ministry-of-truth-steve-benen)
+
+----
+- media
+- [MSNBC News - Breaking News and News Today / Latest News](https://www.msnbc.com/)
+    - [Steve Benen](https://www.msnbc.com/author/steve-benen-ncpn433601)
+        - [The Rachel Maddow Show](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show)
+            - [MaddowBlog](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show)
+                - ["Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ministry-of-truth-steve-benen)
+- [CNN / Breaking News, Latest News and Videos](https://www.cnn.com/)
+- [NBC News - Breaking Headlines and Video Reports on World, U.S. and Local Angles / NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/)
+- [The New York Times (NYT) - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos](https://www.nytimes.com/)
+- [WIRED - The Latest in Technology, Science, Culture and Business](https://www.wired.com/)
+- [The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) - Breaking News, Business, Financial & Economic News, World News and Video](https://www.wsj.com/)
+- [Homepage / Media Matters for America](https://www.mediamatters.org/)
+- people
+- [Erika McEntarfer / LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/erika-mcentarfer-b61579311/)
+- organizations
+- [Heritage Foundation](https://www.heritage.org/)
+- political parties
+- [Democrat Party](https://www.democrats.org/)
+- [Trumpian Party](https://www.gop.com/)
+- universities
+- companies
+- foreign governments
+- state, local governments 
+- federal government
+- [Constitution of the United States](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/)
+    - [U.S. Constitution - Article I / Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-1/)
+    - [U.S. Constitution - Article II / Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-2/)
+    - [U.S. Constitution - Article III / Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-3/)
+    - [U.S. Constitution - Article IV / Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-4/)
+    - [U.S. Constitution - Article V / Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-5/)
+    - [U.S. Constitution - Article VI / Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-6/)
+    - [U.S. Constitution - Article VII / Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-7/)
+    - [Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)](https://www.supremecourt.gov/)
+    - [US Courts](https://www.uscourts.gov/)
+    - [Department of Justice (DOJ)](https://www.justice.gov/)
+        - [Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)](https://www.fbi.gov/)
+    - [Federal Reserve](https;//www.federalreserve.gov/)
+    - [Federal Reserve Board - Federal Reserve Act](https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/fract.htm)
+    - [U.S. Department of the Treasury](https://home.treasury.gov/)
+    - [Department of Commerce (DOC)](https://www.commerce.gov/)
+        - [Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)](https://www.bls.gov/)
+    - [Congress](https://www.congress.gov/)
+        - [Senate](https://www.senate.gov/)
+            - [John McCain – Deceased](https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/M000303)
+        - [House of Representatives](https://www.house.gov/)
+     - [President of the United States (POTUS)](https://www.whitehouse.gov/)
+    - [White House (WH)](https://www.whitehouse.gov/)
+- Trump autocracy
+    - [Donald J Trump](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/)
+        - [President Donald Trump (45)](https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/)
+        - [President Donald Trump (47)](https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/donald-j-trump/)
+            - [President Trump (47) Administration](https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/)
+            - [President Trump (47) Cabinet](https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/the-cabinet/)
+                - press secretary
+                    - Karoline Leavitt
+- grifter
+- self-dealing
+- corruption
+- con artist
+- crime
+- cryptocurrency
+- criminal associates
+- [Home - Stephen K Bannon's War Room](https://warroom.org/)
+- [E.J. Antoni, PhD / The Heritage Foundation](https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd)
+[Matt Gaetz / LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgaetz/)
+[Dave Weldon / LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-weldon-96053b1b/)
+[Ed Martin / LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmartinjr/)
+[Dr. Janette Nesheiwat / LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-janette-nesheiwat-3483731a/)
+[Chad Chronister / LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-chronister-66bb5861/)
+[Kathleen Sgamma / LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-sgamma-1a40671/)
+- Jared Isaacman
+- criminal businesses
+- criminal media
+- criminal organizations
+- criminal partners
+