“I don't think our economy can sustain an oil price of $100 a barrel, it's just not the case,” EJ Antoni said in an interview with the Financial Times.
“The economy is weaker than we thought and inflation is higher than we thought,” he added in a telephone interview Wednesday, just before the Federal Reserve's March interest rate meeting.
Republicans are increasingly concerned that high oil prices will hurt their chances in the November midterm elections. Gasoline prices at stations increased to $3.84. per gallon from $2.92. a month ago, and the price of diesel fuel exceeded $5. — which weighs heavily on American consumers and businesses.
“The lower energy prices we observed in 2025 contributed to putting downward pressure on prices across the economy. Now… higher energy prices will have exactly the opposite effect and will put upward pressure on prices across the economy,” said EJ Antoni.
US GDP in the fourth quarter of 2025 was revised last week to 0.7%. from the original estimate of 1.4 percent Data released on Wednesday showed that wholesale prices in the US were already rising faster than expected in February (before the war began).
The US economy lost 92,000 jobs last month. jobs, a sharp decline that erased most of January's gains.
Trump tapped Anthony, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to head the U.S. Labor Statistics Agency in August, shortly after firing the former commissioner over a “weak” jobs report that the president deemed “falsified.”
A month later, Trump abruptly withdrew Anthony's nomination and ultimately chose government economist Brett Matsumoto, whose appointment requires Senate confirmation.
Antoni's comments about the condition of the world's largest economy appeared a day after the resignation of the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center in protest against the war with Iran, marking the first significant departure from the Trump administration since the beginning of the conflict.
Source: Financial Times
