White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders echoed National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow’s defense of President Donald Trump’s preemptive tweet hinting at a positive jobs report on Friday, calling his comment proper because he “didn’t put the numbers out there.”
Sanders also confirmed to CNBC that Trump was given the jobs report on Thursday evening, adding fodder to the argument of business journalists and former administration officials who have spoken out about Trump’s inappropriate tweet.
More than an hour before the monthly jobs report was set to release on Friday morning, Trump tweeted that he was “looking forward” to it, a comment many have claimed was Trump’s cryptic way of suggesting the report would be positive.
Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2018
Experts have claimed that the tweet has already had an impact on the markets and Market Watch even reported that the tweet may have been a violation of federal rules barring officials from talking about data before it’s released. Former economic officials have argued that the rule is in place to prevent insider trading.
