Trump Taps Insiders To Fix Data He Swore Was Rigged, Again
KEY POINTS
- â˘President Trump announced Brett Matsumotoâs nomination on Truth Social after firing the previous BLS chief in August 2025.
- â˘Matsumoto, a UNC PhD economist with long-standing BLS ties and research on inflation, has been praised by peers.
- â˘The BLS commissioner role, vacant since August, requires Senate confirmation and oversees roughly 2,000 employees.
President Donald Trump recently announced on Truth Social his intention to nominate Brett Matsumoto, a career BLS economist with a PhD from UNC in 2015 and a habit of academic papers on inflation and consumer spending, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This nomination ends months of chaos after Trump fired Erika McEntarfer in August 2025 for reporting weak employment growth, accusing her of political data manipulation without evidence â the kind of conspiracy theory precision one expects from reality TV stars, not statisticians. White House also briefly flirted with EJ Antoni, a Heritage Foundation economist who apparently lacked enough Senate bling for confirmation. Matsumoto, relatively social media shy except for a Facebook profile photo with Ivanka Trump from 2020 and now a tabby cat sidekick, has earned economistsâ cautious thumbs-up as a 'thoughtful data nerd' ready to 'quickly fix' BLS issues. The BLS, home to 2,000 staffers and a traditionally nonpartisan reputation, now awaits Senate confirmation of this four-year commissioner hopeful who might restore trust or at least give statisticians fewer existential crises.
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Firing your way through BLS leadership because numbers donât cheer for you is peak 2025 energy. Matsumoto's next: stats whisperer or chaos wranglerâsame thing in this economy.
Trump replacing the BLS boss like a reality show eliminee because the jobs report wasnât loud enough for him.
Nominate an economist with actual expertise and a cat profile pic? This administrationâs finally catching some plot twists.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 1/31/2026 | Author: Katherine Li
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