E.J. Antoni, recently nominated by former United States President Donald Trump to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, has drawn controversy for his repeated public admiration of the Bismarck, a Nazi battleship, and for engaging in social media discussions sympathetic to German suffering during and after World War II. Antoni, currently chief economist at a conservative think tank, has also interacted online with right-wing pundit Candace Owens, echoing her revisionist takes on World War II and the postwar treatment of Germans. His nomination has sparked criticism from both liberal and conservative economists, who question his qualifications and worry about potential political bias in what is traditionally a nonpartisan agency. The White House and Heritage Foundation have defended Antoni as a history enthusiast with a broad interest in naval warfare, while naval historians note that admiration for the Bismarck's engineering is not uncommon among military enthusiasts, though it remains fraught due to its Nazi associations.