Business journalists and former administration officials are sounding the alarm after President Donald Trump tweeted hinting the monthly jobs report would be positive an hour before its release.
Just before 7:30 a.m. ET, Trump tweeted that he was “looking forward to seeing the employment numbers” when the report was released at 8:30 a.m. ET, a move that reporters, like Business Insider’s Pedro da Costa, are claiming has already influenced markets.
Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2018
Markets are moving on Trump’s illegal tweet preview of April jobs report.
— Pedro da Costa (@pdacosta) June 1, 2018
Experts and former officials have said that at best, Trump broke with expected precedent and at worst, he appeared to violate federal rules barring officials from commenting on data before its release.
Another norm-breaking tweet: Trump sending a signal to the markets about the jobs numbers an hour before they are made public. https://t.co/urENVUo2G5
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) June 1, 2018
Former Obama administration economic official Jason Furman spoke out on Twitter minutes after Trump’s tweet, suggesting that the President should be blocked from viewing the report ahead of its release if he was, in fact, attempting to give his followers a hint about the report.
You should have gotten the employment numbers from the Council of Economic Advisers yesterday.
And if this tweet is conveying inside information about a particularly good jobs number you should never get them in advance from the Council of Economic Advisers again. https://t.co/Qd3ig89onT
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) June 1, 2018
Others, like David Wessel, a journalist and the director of the fiscal and monetary policy branch of the Brookings Institution, chalked it up to another Trump public relations nightmare that could’ve been avoided.
Not sure how masterful Trump is at PR game: We get really good jobs numbers and he steps on the news with a premature and inappropriate tweet.
— David Wessel (@davidmwessel) June 1, 2018
Some former officials were divided on the significance of the President’s tweet. Tony Fratto, the former deputy press secretary for the George W. Bush administration, said Trump didn’t break any statutes, while former Obama White House cabinet secretary Chris Lu suggested that “misuse” of the federal jobs data “leads to dismissal.”
I'm not aware of any statute that would prevent a POTUS from announcing the jobs #s himself if he wanted to. But it's obviously pretty bad practice to hint at the number. Market participants rely on consistent, predictable release of our data.
— Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto) June 1, 2018
If you're wondering about the outrage over Trump's #JobsReport tweet, this is one of the most sensitive pieces of federal data and can dramatically move markets. It's closely held and misuse of it leads to dismissal.
Good @elisaslow story from 2012: https://t.co/LKe13ePcOO
— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) June 1, 2018
The White House did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
Appalled? My only surprise would be if he did not trade on the news before he made his comment. Someone ought to check the accounts of his family and close friends to see if any of them bought stock just before the news hit.
Well at least he hasn’t hit the nuclear button yet
Yes the bar is set that low
This just demonstrates Trump being a norms-busting jackass oblivious to the guard rails of the Presidency because he has no one that can constrain him. Trump is feeling his oats, completely hubristic, thinking he’s got this whole “presidenting” thing down, and that will be his downfall. This is about the only time I don’t think he was actually trying to be corrupt…he just stumbled into it because it just comes so naturally to him.
All these statements from Trump that affect the market should be investigated. Is there anyone in Trumps orbit who shorts or buys long in the market based on Trump’s insider information? I bet there are.
Trump would regularly lie that these numbers from the BLS were “cooked” under Obama. But apparently, they are just peachy now. Owing to Trump’s history of projection, when the economy eventually takes a downturn, how can we be sure that Trump won’t put enormous pressure on the BLS to keep the news looking good?