Trump nominee to lead labour statistics agency faces wave of criticism
His selection threatens to bring a new level of
politicisation to a producer of measurements of the nation’s economic health
that has, for decades, been widely regarded as a nonpartisan and reliable
agency.
“Trump has nominated a sycophant to tell him exactly what he
wants to hear. Make no mistake: This selection is a clear assault on
independent analysis that will have far-reaching implications for the
reliability of US economic data,” Alex Jaquez, a member of the White
House National Economic Council under former President Joe Biden, said in a
statement provided to Al Jazeera.
Many former Labor Department officials say that while it is
unlikely Antoni will be able to distort or alter the data, particularly in the
short run, he could change the currently dry-as-dust way it is presented.
Antoni was nominated by Trump after the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) released a jobs report on August 1 that showed that hiring had
weakened in July and was much lower in May and June than the agency had
previously reported. Trump, without evidence, charged that the data had been
“rigged” for political reasons and fired the then-BLS chair, Erika McEntarfer,
much to the dismay of many within the agency and the broad condemnation of
experts.
Firing officials for reporting accurate data unflattering to
the regime is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. It is an attempt to
mislead the American people, to avoid being held to account for their failures,
and to rewrite history,” Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the
Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera.
Antoni’s nomination comes as Trump continues to spin
fabrications throughout the US economic data, including claiming gas
prices are lower than they are and that egg prices have fallen 400 percent – a
mathematically impossible figure.
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