“President Trump did himself no favors by firing the Bureau of Labor Statistics head because he didn’t like last month’s jobs report. He also did no favors for his nominated BLS replacement, Heritage Foundation chief economist EJ Antoni, who will now have to overcome public skepticism to show the data can be trusted. Stipulate first that the BLS data has become increasingly volatile in recent years. Last month’s jobs report revised down gains by 258,000 for May and June. This suggested that growth stalled this spring. Mr Trump then claimed without evidence that the numbers were ‘RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,'” writes the normally MAGA-friendly Wall Street Journal op-ed board, laying about all the reasons that the pick sucks, before the close: “Few people trust China’s economic data because they know the government serves the interests of the ruling Communist Party. Mr Antoni will have to take off his MAGA hat if he wants to ensure that the public and markets can trust BLS data.”