Donald Trump spent last week crashing out over his horrible jobs report — even bringing in a Project 2025 author, Stephen Moore, to present special data that “no one else” has. Now he’s installed a Project 2025 contributor and Heritage Foundation chief economist, EJ Antoni, who, by all accounts, is unqualified to cook the books at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Today’s Consumer Price Index report confirms what Americans have known all along — prices are up and working families are suffering. Instead of doing the real work to grow the job market and lower prices, Trump is spending his time trying to rig the game to get the numbers he wants while injecting uncertainty into key data that American businesses rely on.  

In response, DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer released the following statement:

“Donald Trump is reeling from disastrous economic report after disastrous economic report, and now, he’s enlisted a lackey to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. EJ Antoni is nothing more than another Trump loyalist who will do and say whatever Trump wants. No matter how hard they try, Americans know that Trump’s economic agenda is failing everyone — except Trump and his billionaire friends.” 

Earlier this month, Antoni all but admitted his plans to try to cook the books once he’s BLS chief, claiming that the reason Trump’s jobs reports have “data problems” showing a slowing labor market is because a Trump loyalist isn’t in charge of BLS. 

In addition to being a Project 2025 contributor, Antoni has repeatedly tried to argue that Trump’s failing economic agenda is a wild success — even though the facts say otherwise. 

• Antoni has argued inflation is cooling under Trump — despite core inflation actually ticking up above 3% last month for the first time since February, and durable goods PCE prices experiencing one of the biggest six-month jumps since 1987. 
• He claimed there was no cost to consumers from tariffs, when economists are warning U.S. consumers could shoulder up to 67% of tariff-related costs. 
• In a stunning display, Antoni showcased his complete lack of understanding of how the government works, falsely claiming that the Federal Reserve is a for-profit institution funded by taxpayer dollars in an attempt to attack Fed Chair Jerome Powell. 
• Antoni previously argued that labor report revisions are “normal operating procedure” for the BLS — but only when it was convenient for him. 

Let’s not forget how we got here. Trump’s most recent jobs report was anemic, with just 73,000 jobs added. Revisions showed that May, June, and July were the weakest three months of job growth since the pandemic — and before that, since 2010 and the Great Recession. Since Trump took office, Manufacturing employment has fallen by 28,000 jobs. This year, layoffs have jumped 140% compared to last year.   

To make matters worse, Trump’s disastrous, billionaire-first budget will cost millions of jobs while his reckless trade war skyrockets inflation. It’s no surprise that only one-quarter of U.S. adults say that Trump’s policies have helped them since he took office.

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