E.J. Antoni, the presidents 37-year-old nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), made anti-LGBTQ+ comments in a now-deleted Twitter account that he ran from 2015 to 2019, CNN reported. Antoni served as an economist for the creators of Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation. He also criticized the former BLS head, who the president fired on August 1, for publishing much-lower-than-expected national job statistics for May, June, and July.Antoni first created his Twitter account in 2015 as @ErwinJohnAntoni, with the display name Erwin J. Antoni III, and a profile image of the president holding a gun and a bald eagle with the U.S. flag and flames behind him. While studying for his PhD in mid-2019, Antoni changed his account to @phdofbombsaway, his display name to Dr. Curtis LeMay, and his profile pic to a nuclear mushroom cloud. Curtis LeMay was a Cold War general who promoted using nuclear weapons and ran alongside racist far-right presidential candidate George Wallace. Related Kristi Noem defends DHS speechwriters racist, antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+ social media posts When Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) published an October 8, 2019, tweet in support of LGBTQIA+ workplace anti-discrimination laws, Antoniresponded,Does the I stand for incest? With your brother? His comment repeated a right-wing lie about Omar.In March 2020, he wrote, There is only one sexual orientation everything else is a disorientation. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today He also repeatedly and baselessly referred to liberal economist Paul Krugman, then-President Joe Biden, and former FBI director James Comey as pedophiles, an insult often applied as a far-right insult against LGBTQ+ people and their allies. He also made sexually graphic anti-gay taunts at out gay CNN anchors Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper, CNN reported. Antoni also made other posts arguing that abortion (or child sacrifice, as he called it) should be illegal even in cases of rape, insulting feminists, and suggesting that then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) used sex to advance her career. He stopped using the account after Twitter banned the current president for inciting the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Antoni said he himself was a bystander to the riots; no evidence shows Antoni entered the Capitol on that day.Before he can assume BLS leadership, Antoni must first undergo the Senate confirmation process. However, economists worry that, if confirmed into the traditionally non-partisan bureau, hell distort national employment data to seem more favorable to the president. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.