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EJ Antoni, who was nominated by Trump to lead the Bureau of Labour Statistics, allegedly operated a Twitter account that featured sexually degrading attacks against Democrats.
Trump has nominated EJ Antoni as the new BLS commissioner. (White House)
US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), EJ Antoni, allegedly operated a now-deleted Twitter account that featured sexually degrading attacks on Kamala Harris, offensive remarks about gay people and crude insults for Trump critics.
Antoni, a 37-year-old economist and a staunch Trump loyalist, posted the offensive remarks from 2017 to 2020 under several usernames. As per a CNN investigation, all of Antoni’s posts came from the same Twitter account, and the posts from the anonymous aliases shared strikingly similar biographical details as Antoni.
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Antoni has been an outspoken critic of the non-partisan BLS, which calculates US job growth and unemployment figures. His appointment came after Trump fired the Biden-appointed BLS commissioner and accused the agency of corruption, without evidence, after a report showed job growth in May and June was weaker than previously estimated.
He works at the conservative think tank, Heritage Foundation, and has positioned himself as an advocate of government accountability through the organisation’s blog posts and media appearances. However, his digital presence is traced back to a pattern of offensive rhetoric that includes conspiracy theories and misogyny.
Antoni’s Attacks On Top Democrats
Antoni’s account was used to make degrading and sexist remarks about female Democratic politicians, including Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, as per the CNN report. It was also used to make unsubstantiated allegations against left-leaning public figures and bigoted attacks towards gay TV news anchors.
In 2019, the now-deleted account known as “ErwinJohnAntoni” changed its username to “phdofbombsaway”, and posted five sexually suggestive tweets implying that then-Senator Kamala Harris had advanced her career through sexual favours.
He also referred to Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, as “Miss Piggy” and retweeted several misogynistic posts. The account was also used to propagate conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential elections.
His remarks include calling Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez a “whack job” and a “space cadet”. In March 2020, Antoni tweeted about Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Trump critic, saying, “No one wants to have sex with that catfish.”
In one post, he dismissed the existence of LGBTQ people, saying, “There is only one sexual orientation — everything else is a disorientation.” He also argued against abortion even in cases of rape.
Concerns over Antoni’s Appointment
Antoni was nominated to be the next BLS commissioner after Trump ordered the dismissal of Erika McEntarfer, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, on August 1 after accusing her of publishing “phony” job creation numbers for July.
The White House defended Antoni and did not address the offensive tweets he made earlier. “President Trump has nominated Dr. EJ Antoni to fix the issues at the BLS and restore trust in the jobs reports. Dr. Antoni has the experience and credentials needed to restore solution-oriented leadership at the BLS — solutions that will prioritise increasing survey response rates and modernising data collection methods to improve the BLS’s accuracy,” CNN quoted White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.
However, Antoni has no experience working for the government, unlike McEntarfer. He earned a PhD in economics from Northern Illinois University in 2020 and took positions at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, which is believed to be the architect of Project 2025, a blueprint for Trump’s second term.
Antoni’s work as an economist has also come under scrutiny after he co-published a report last year that claimed that the American economy had been in a recession since 2022, sparking backlash from economists across political circles.
In past media appearances, Antoni has echoed Trump’s dissatisfaction with labour statistics and the Federal Reserve. Earlier this year, he accused the central bank of “election interference” for cutting rates close to the 2024 presidential election, a claim Trump has also made.
About the Author
Aveek Banerjee is a Senior Sub Editor at News18. Based in Noida with a Master’s in Global Studies, Aveek has more than three years of experience in digital media and news curation, specialising in international…Read More
Aveek Banerjee is a Senior Sub Editor at News18. Based in Noida with a Master’s in Global Studies, Aveek has more than three years of experience in digital media and news curation, specialising in international… Read More
United States of America (USA)
September 06, 2025, 22:24 IST
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