Bannon Pushes EJ Antoni for BLS, Wants ‘MAGA Republican’ in Role

Steve Bannon, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump in his first term and an influential voice in conservative circles, is pushing for EJ Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“I’ve told everybody in the administration that EJ is the perfect guy at the perfect time to run the BLS,” Bannon told Bloomberg News late Wednesday. On his podcast earlier in the week, Bannon also pushed for Antoni, adding he’s “the guy that almost single-handedly took it down by going through their numbers.”

Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, came on Bannon’s podcast Friday shortly ...