President Trump’s recent move to fire the Biden-appointed chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has ignited a fierce political firestorm, revealing deep fractures in how America’s economic health is reported and perceived. His nominee to replace her, E.J. Antoni, initially stirred controversy by suggesting the suspension of the monthly jobs report in favor of quarterly data, asserting that the current numbers were unreliable and frequently subject to revision.
"How on earth are businesses supposed to plan—or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy—when they don’t know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy? It’s a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately," Antoni told Fox News Digital.
"Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data," he added. "Major decision-makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences."
The left erupted in outrage at this suggestion, accusing Antoni and Trump of trying to “cook the books” to distort economic reality. Yet these claims are baseless and ironically ignore the fact that it was the Biden administration’s BLS that had cooked the books, overestimating U.S. job gains by around 1.5 million during the final two years of his term.
This massive discrepancy wasn’t an isolated incident—it reflected a pattern where early job figures were routinely reported high and then quietly revised down after the fact, to the dismay of those relying on the data.
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Even more concerning is what lies behind the numbers. Much of the so-called “job growth” under Biden came from the hiring of migrants, including illegal aliens, rather than expanding opportunities for American-born workers.
At the same time, real wages—the true measure of economic well-being—plummeted during Biden’s tenure but have risen under Trump. That’s just one more reason to question the jobs data coming from former commissioner Erika McEntarfer's BLS.
Trump’s decision to remove McEntarfer, the Biden-era chief, came after a July jobs report revealed a slowdown in hiring and major downward revisions of prior months. Were those numbers legitimate? If McEntarfer’s BLS could manufacture 1.5 million fake jobs under Biden, is there reason to believe it wouldn’t fudge reports to make Trump look bad? There are 1.5 million reasons to think so. Democrats complaining about Trump “cooking the books” ignore that it was Biden and McEntarfer doing just that—making a course correction overdue.
While Antoni has since walked back his proposal to suspend monthly jobs reports, the debate he sparked is important. It forces the public, Wall Street, and Washington to confront the fact that America’s economic data cannot be blindly trusted or manipulated. Restoring integrity in labor statistics is critical to rebuilding a strong economy and protecting millions of livelihoods.
The removal of the Biden-appointed BLS chief and the ensuing jobs report controversy highlight the systemic politicization of economic data that Trump is working to correct. This isn’t just a bureaucratic shuffle—it’s a battle over economic truth, accountability, and the future prosperity of working Americans. Under Trump, the focus is on honest data, real wage growth, and jobs for citizens rather than political theater. The path forward depends on a transparent BLS and an economy built on genuine opportunity and fair, sustainable growth.
