The Daily Signal Presents “The “Signal Sitdown - Former BLS Nominee EJ Antoni Tells All About His Nomination Fight

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Tuesday, the nomination of ⁠E.J. Antoni⁠, the Chief Economist at The Heritage Foundation, to become the next Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was withdrawn. In his first long-form interview since his withdrawal, Antoni joins ⁠“The Signal Sitdown”⁠ for an inside look at life as a presidential nominee and the problems with our economic data that President Donald Trump is trying to solve. When Antoni met with the president in the Oval Office upon his ⁠nominatio⁠n, the biggest piece of advice that Trump gave him was “always tell the truth.” In the months since ⁠President Donald Trump⁠ nominated him for the position in August, Antoni has lived the unique life of a presidential nominee—constant meetings on Capitol Hill, continued preparation for the nominated role in the administration, and very little sleep. But, day after day, Antoni took the president’s words to heart and told Senators the hard truths about our economy and our economic data. Antoni explained why the BLS is in desperate need of reform, ”The problems were starting to surface, really, many, many years ago with things like people just not responding to government surveys anymore. Those response rates have been steadily trending down,” ⁠Antoni told The Daily Signal⁠. Keep Up With The Daily Signal Sign up for our email newsletters:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.dailysignal.com/email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to our other shows: The Tony Kinnett Cast: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2284199939⁠ The Signal Sitdown: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2026390376⁠ Problematic Women:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL7765680741⁠ Victor Davis Hanson: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9809784327⁠ Follow The Daily Signal: X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=DailySignal⁠ Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Truth Social:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.1	Hi, Bradley Devlin here, politics editor of The Daily Signal,
0:33.8	and I'm excited to share this episode of my show with The Daily Signal
0:36.8	called The Signal Sitdown with you.
0:39.6	The Signal Sitdown is one of the Daily Signal's other podcasts, and each show I bring you
0:44.7	inside the biggest battles in Washington, D.C., with some of the biggest names in politics.
0:50.8	So if you like what you hear today, make sure you subscribe to the Signal Sitdown
0:54.4	for weekly episodes. We'll see you there.
0:57.2	Grover Cleveland went a bunch of his, basically like the equivalent of like his press
1:02.8	court, we're trying to spin some things in the news to help them get reelected. You know,
1:07.5	they were basically trying to lie. And he stopped them and he said, no matter what, first things first, tell the truth.
1:13.6	I will say to you that is almost word for word what the president told me in the Oval Office.
1:19.6	He said, I tell everybody, always tell the truth.
1:22.6	I think in a lot of ways there are many, many Republicans in Congress who, again, they got the R behind
	...

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