Trump just cannot let the bad jobs data go.Yuri Gripas/Pool/CNP/ZUMA

On Monday night, President Donald Trump announced his new pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after firing the previous commissioner and baselessly alleging that recently released poor jobs numbers were “rigged.”

Trump’s pick for the post is EJ Antoni, a conservative economist at the Heritage Foundation and a longtime critic of the BLS who has suggested doing away with the report that so triggered Trump. “Our Economy is booming, and EJ will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,” Trump claimed in his Truth Social post announcing he would nominate Antoni for the role.

Economists have called him “completely unqualified,” “an extreme partisan,” and “disastrously terrible.” Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Axios that Antoni’s work at the Heritage Foundation “frequently included elementary errors or nonsensical choices that all bias his findings in the same partisan direction.”

A look at Antoni’s public statements, writings, and politics suggest that, if confirmed, he will likely help remake the BLS—a wonky, heretofore nonpartisan agency housed within the Department of Labor (DOL)—in Trump’s image.

Last week, Antoni, who is also a senior fellow for the right-wing Committee to Unleash Prosperity, said on Steve Bannon’s podcast that the next BLS commissioner should “be willing to essentially overhaul the entire thing.”

“We need a redo at at BLS, essentially,” Antoni said. He also told Bannon he thinks a MAGA Republican should be........

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