President Donald Trump has withdrawn his nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, EJ Antoni, weeks after reports accused him of writing since-deleted inflammatory tweets.
A White House official confirmed to the Associated Press that his nomination was being pulled, but didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind the move.
Antoni was a “brilliant economist,” a White House official told The New York Times, adding that Trump would announce a new pick soon.
The Senate received paperwork formally withdrawing Antoni’s nomination on Tuesday, the AP reported.
The Independent has asked the White House for more information.
Trump tapped Antoni, the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, for the post in August after ousting the agency’s last commissioner Erika McEntarfer. The president was upset with the poor July jobs report, claiming that “the numbers were rigged.”
The Heritage Foundation confirmed Tuesday evening Antoni will return to his role at the conservative think tank.
“Dr. E.J. Antoni continues to be one of the sharpest economic minds in the country. E.J.’s immense capabilities and insightful economic analysis have not changed—and we are very proud to have him on our team,” Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, wrote on X.
“It is undeniable that BLS needs reform and @RealEJAntoni was the right man for the job. E.J. will keep calling for that reform and serving the interests of the American people from his invaluable role as chief economist at @Heritage,” he added.
Earlier this month, CNN and Wired revealed a series of controversial tweets from a since-deleted X account. The tweets, written from 2017 to 2020, included misogynistic comments, derogatory remarks about LGBTQ+ folks, and conspiracy theories.
Several tweets suggested that former Vice President Kamala Harris came to power through sexual favors.
“You can’t run a race on your knees,” a 2019 tweet from an account tied to Antoni said, not long after Harris announced her 2020 presidential run.
He was also accused of making sexist remarks about other top Democratic politicians, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
In an October 2019 tweet, Omar wrote that she was “standing in solidarity with my LGBTQIA+ family today and always.” Repeating a debunked conspiracy theory that Omar was married to her sibling, the account linked to Antoni replied: “Does the I stand for incest? With your brother?”
The account also launched bigoted insults against gay TV news anchors Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper.
In March 2020, the account tried to delegitimize the existence of LGBTQ+ individuals: “There is only one sexual orientation – everything else is a disorientation.”
