{"id":5224,"date":"2026-02-03T22:53:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/03\/trump-names-veteran-economist-to-lead-bureau-of-labor-statistics-after-firing-agencys-chief\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T22:53:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:53:35","slug":"trump-names-veteran-economist-to-lead-bureau-of-labor-statistics-after-firing-agencys-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/03\/trump-names-veteran-economist-to-lead-bureau-of-labor-statistics-after-firing-agencys-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump names veteran economist to lead Bureau of Labor Statistics after firing agency’s chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a> said Friday that he would nominate Brett Matsumoto, a longtime government economist, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after firing the agency\u2019s commissioner <\/a>in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrett Matsumoto is a Brilliant, Reputable, and Trusted Economist who will restore GREATNESS to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Trump fired former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in August, hours after a dismal government report showed that hiring had slowed significantly<\/a> in previous months. At the time, Trump claimed without evidence that the data was \u201crigged\u201d and implied that McEntarfer had manipulated the numbers \u201cfor political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

BLS collects and publishes U.S. economic data on the labor market, inflation and productivity.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s announcement Friday comes months after he named E.J. Antoni, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a contributor to Project 2025, to replace McEntarfer. The White House pulled Antoni\u2019s nomination<\/a> in September after he faced backlash for his criticism of BLS and after the White House said<\/a> he was a \u201cbystander\u201d at the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.<\/p>\n

Matsumoto has had a much more limited public profile. He began working as an economist at BLS in 2015 in its price index measurement division and is currently an economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a position he held during Trump\u2019s first term as well.<\/p>\n

His nomination has garnered early approval from industry leaders.<\/p>\n

Omair Sharif, founder of the forecasting firm Inflation Insights, said in a post<\/a> that Matsumoto is an \u201cextremely solid choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a very smart, skilled economist who has 10+ yrs of experience at BLS. Understands the details of the data & importance of unbiased data,\u201d Sharif said.<\/p>\n

Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America, an economic policy research and advocacy organization, said in a post<\/a> that Matsumoto is \u201ca very thoughtful person who understands the nuts and bolts of data measurement and estimation.\u201d<\/p>\n

If confirmed by the Senate, Matsumoto would replace acting BLS Commissioner William Wiatrowski, who took over the agency after McEntarfer\u2019s abrupt firing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump said Friday that he would nominate Brett Matsumoto, a longtime government economist, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after firing the agency\u2019s commissioner in August. \u201cBrett Matsumoto is a Brilliant, Reputable, and Trusted Economist who will restore GREATNESS to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}