Economic experts are taking to Twitter to warn that President Donald Trump’s early jobs report tweet is an egregious breach that may well warrant an investigation.
They think that Trump is in violation of a 1985 OMB directive, which forbids employees of the Executive Branch from telling anyone about the numbers until an hour after their public release. Trump sent out his tweet at 7:21 AM on Friday; the jobs report was released at 8:30 AM.
A former member of the President’s council of economic advisers under President Obama pointed out the possibility of leaked information sparking insider trading, and said that any leaks should be investigated.
There is a big question about who he privately leaks data to and that should be investigated.
Privately leaking this information makes money for those who get it. Where does the money they “make” come from? People who don’t have the information. https://t.co/NoHuJTWUTX— Betsey Stevenson (@BetseyStevenson) June 1, 2018
The former chairman of the council of economic advisers said that Trump broke the law.
If the president just tipped that the numbers are good, he broke the law https://t.co/8MDJZAS22j
— Austan Goolsbee (@Austan_Goolsbee) June 1, 2018
Former Treasury Secretary and NEC director Larry Summers alluded to the curve on which Trump is graded, saying that investigations would be called for any other President.
If during the Clinton or Obama Administrations there had been a statement from @POTUS or anyone senior official in the morning before the Employment Report it would have been a major scandal—with all sorts of investigations following on.
— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) June 1, 2018
A CNN political commentator reminded his followers that this is not the first time that President Donald Trump violated the directive.
And this is not the first time Trump has violated the federal law requiring him not to comment on monthly #JobsReport until one hour after its release. He did it on August 4, 2017 at 8:45 AM, 15 minutes after the numbers were released. https://t.co/GKqzzIcycR
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) June 1, 2018
A former undersecretary of labor was blunt.
1985 federal directive on #JobsReport states: “employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time.” Trump’s tweet was a “comment” that violates this directive.
— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) June 1, 2018
A former White House press secretary nodded to the decades of norms that Trump broke.
This certainly was a no-no. The advance info is sacrosanct – not to be shared. https://t.co/FjxVKklRSH
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) June 1, 2018
A CNBC anchor sent out a picture of the effect of Trump’s tweet on the markets.
POTUS’s jobs tweet this am, via @lisaabramowicz1 pic.twitter.com/FbebGfbK9F
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) June 1, 2018
And an MIT professor cited the consequences people have faced for insider trading before.
“John Youngdahl, 45, has served just one year of his 33-month punishment…Youngdahl leaked restricted information eight minutes ahead of a government deadline to help his firm’s bond traders make killing.”https://t.co/omuxHuVVg5
— Erik Brynjolfsson (@erikbryn) June 1, 2018
But, but Benghazi!
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
November 6, 2018, cannot come soon enough.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Trump will cry like a baby animal in the wild if he gets real heat on this, and the momma titties will come rushing to the defense.
There is no law that constrains Trump if it isn’t enforced.