MAGA influencer and former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon spoke to Heritage Foundation senior scholar E.J. Antoni on Friday after July’s jobs report — which included major downward revisions for June and May — dropped

The Labor Department also announced that the U.S. economy added 73,000 jobs in July and revised the June jobs numbers down to 14,000 from 147,000. May, likewise, was revised down to 19,000 from the previous 144,000 jobs estimate – meaning the economy added 258,000 fewer jobs in those two months than previously estimated.

“First off, I want to talk about something you’ve been on here for four years [and] complained about, and that is the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and whether we get accurate numbers. Now everybody’s talking about the number here. It’s a quarter of a million jobs. They’re like on the downside,” Bannon began, noting the major revisions.

“It turns out we didn’t get, and now it’s a restatement. What in the hell is going on there? And have we put in our own person into BLS? Is a MAGA Republican that President Trump knows and trusts, are they running the Bureau of Labor Statistics yet, sir?” Bannon asked Antoni.

“No, unfortunately, Steve, we still haven’t gotten there. And I think that’s part of the reason why we continue to have all of these different data problems. You know, the guy we had previously, Bill Beach, is actually a great guy, a brilliant statistician. And he recognized some of the problems that we had in the data. He was taking steps to fix that,” Antoni replied, adding:

But unfortunately, he was removed by the Biden administration. He’s not there anymore. And he’s been replaced by someone who, frankly, I think is incompetent. And that shows with the fact that the problems in the statistics that first became evident all the way back in the spring of 2022. Those problems are still there.

And if we can go to the first chart here, I think it really helps illustrate that, where essentially what you can see is the fact that the disparity between the number of people who are saying they have a job, who are employed, that’s in brown there, versus the line in gray is the number of non-farm payrolls we have. As you can see, before the pandemic, they tracked very, very well together, but since then, they’ve really started to spread apart. And that problem has never actually been fixed. In other words, we’re not correctly estimating either the number of people with jobs or the number of actual jobs in the country — or both.

And if we go to the next chart here, we can get a better sense of some of the problem. What continuously keeps happening is that we get an initial estimate for the number of jobs and then that figure has to get revised down and pretty dramatically. Now, this is just over the last year. The reason I chose a year, though, is because over the course of a year, you should have some months revised up, some months revised down, but all in all, it should average out to zero.

That’s not what’s happening anymore. There’s clearly a negative bias in the revisions, which means there’s a positive bias in the initial numbers. In other words, we get an overly optimistic report, and then we later find out that it wasn’t that great. And so now we see that for the last several months, most of the jobs that we thought we were adding didn’t actually exist. Again, this is not a problem unique to the Trump administration or unique to 2025. It happened in ’22, in ’23, and in ’24.

In fact, earlier this week, the BLS announced with their latest round of quarterly data that 2024 is gonna see another major downward revision. Unfortunately, we’re just not gonna get that report until the start of next year, but it is coming. We’re gonna see hundreds of thousands of jobs that we thought we had in 2024 — it turns out they never even existed.

Watch the clip above via WarRoom.

The post Steve Bannon Calls for ‘MAGA Republican’ to Run Bureau of Labor Statistics After Dismal Jobs Report first appeared on Mediaite.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not a very woo-woo or mindful type of person, but I actually do enjoy the meditation classes Peloton offers through its surprisingly versatile app. Still, I'm more of an aggressive, practical person, so I really enjoy a challenging workout, especially a cycling workout. Recently, I discovered an offering from the at-home fitness company that combines meditation and cycling. "Reflection Rides" are calmer, more focused cardio classes—and now, Peloton has made them easier to access.

What is a Reflection Ride?

Reflection Rides are led by Christine D'Ercole, a track cyclist who heads up a number of spinning classes on the platform. In her own words, "Reflection Rides are a mindful ride series where we tune out the metrics so that we can tune into ourselves and our self-talk."

So, these rides are less about the leaderboard, the watt expenditure, or the calories burned, and more about becoming stronger mentally, which can often translate into helping an athlete become stronger physically. (This approach is reminiscent of Peloton's Hyrox training series, which includes cardio and strength training classes as well as meditation and is designed to strengthen every part of a trainee's approach to running the race.)

Still, the classes incorporate traditional cycling workout techniques. There are climbs and flat roads, for instance, so you're still getting a cardio challenge while also staying mindful and practicing "agency over giving yourself what you need," as D'Ercole says in one class. She encourages you to go at your own pace, though there are traditional cues and suggestions for where you might want to be in terms of pace and resistance.

D'Ercole encourages participants to think about what is motivating them, what is scaring them, and what challenges they're facing during the ride, plus she suggests mantras like, "I will make the call. I will speak my truth." Instead of high-intensity pop or rock, the classes are soundtracked by softer, earthier music.

The Reflection Rides range in length from 20 to 30 minutes and can be found by simply searching "reflection" in the app, whether on the Bike screen or on your mobile device. Personally, I always like to pre-select my classes on my phone, then create a Stack (Peloton's word for playlist) with the ones I want before moving over to the Bike. It's just easier to search for what I want to do that way and I identify better classes when I take the time to source them on my phone instead of jabbing at my Bike screen.

You can also find all of the Reflection Rides in a designated Peloton Collection. On the bottom of the app's home screen, hit Browse All Workouts, then tap Collections at the top. You'll see the Hyrox training series, the Reflection Rides, and more, all collected into easy-to-find categories. You can also find Collections on the Bike screen by tapping Classes on the bottom menu, then Collections in the top left.

Why I like these classes

Nine times out of 10, I want to sweat, go fast, and push myself—but I also enjoy the benefits that come from not doing that every once in a while. I can be really hard on myself, especially when it comes to my fitness goals, so it's nice to take some time to simply move, reflect on how it feels to move, and enjoy the accomplished feeling of having done it.

Being encouraged to think deeply about the way I talk to myself—again, especially as it relates to my body goals—and recognize just how nice it is to have the privilege to move at all helps me reorient my thinking a little bit. Instead of viewing exercise as something I simply have to do to achieve and maintain the body I want, I am able to see it as something I'm lucky enough to be well enough to do and something I should do out of enjoyment, too.

Like I said, I'm not particularly woo-woo, so I wouldn't say I do this sort of thing a lot or even as often as I should, but having access to something that grounds me while still helping me get some cardio in is pretty great.