June 1, 2018

Trump believes that he's above the law, which includes discarding every protocol and protection the US government has put in place since he began his term in office.

Case in point: Friday morning Trump tweeted out a very hopeful remark about the soon-to-be-released jobs report which sent the markets higher before they opened.

Larry Kudlow, the national economic adviser admitted to CNBC that he advised the president the night before about the jobs report.

Any President of the United States has the power to influence many things including the stock market if they reveal information to the public before it is prudent. That is why in 1985, protocols were set up.

omb_1985

It's not unusual for a president to receive the information before they are made public by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but they have a duty to protect that information.

MSNBC's Kristen Welker asked White House officials about Trump's tweet and they all believe that what he did was not improper and he did not give a waiting game.

Larry Kudlow explained, "It's my call whether to send them over to the president to give him a call or have a meeting with him. That's just what I did last evening. okay. I tracked him down on Air Force One, I wanted him to know the numbers. That's a long custom, That's correct. He has a right to know, He's the commander in chief. That's all."

Being commander in chief is not a kingship or a dictatorship. We all must follow rules.

Kudlow continued, "He chose to tweet his tweet basically said like everybody else, we rate the numbers. You can read into that ten different things if you want to read into it. Numbers themselves are up slightly more, that's good news. I don't think he gave anything away, incidentally. I think this is all according to routine, as I say, law and customs."

This is bullsh*t.

Trump would never have tweeted out a hopeful remark about unemployment numbers if they weren't good and everybody knows it, Larry.

And the markets reacted accordingly.

Treasury yields moved sharply higher within seconds of a tweet from Trump...Bloomberg News data also showed that the value of the U.S. dollar moved sharply higher after the Twitter post compared with previous trades the morning's jobs data are released. That means traders were probably making investment decisions based on signals they took from Trump’s post.

Of course, they were.

Bill Kristol wondered if Trump didn't tip off family and friends.

Bloomberg reported it as a breach of precedent, "It doesn’t look good,” said Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com’s senior economic analyst. “As has been said so many times by the president’s supporters as well as his critics, this is another case where it would be better for President Trump would be wise to spend his time doing something other than tweeting.”

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon