Once again, Donald Trump, Donald John Trump, President Trump, breaking rules and precedent. Here's what he did this past Friday morning.
Trump's tweet on solid jobs report breaks protocol aimed at preventing investors from making early trades
A bit from the article:
For decades, federal officials have taken great care to prevent providing any early indications to investors about monthly jobs report data that can move markets.
On Friday, President Trump broke that longstanding protocol using his favorite communication tool — Twitter — triggering a jump in yields on the 10-year Treasury bond and an outcry from former White House officials.
Trump, who learned about the strong May jobs report Thursday night, tweeted Friday morning that he was “looking forward to seeing the employment numbers” scheduled to be released by the Labor Department about an hour later.
A top White House official emphasized that Trump didn’t reveal any of the numbers, but investors took it as a clear sign the numbers were good. And they weren’t disappointed.
In tweeting about the report when he did, Trump violated a longstanding prohibition against executive branch officials publicly commenting on the report before its official release or within an hour afterward.
“Except for members of the staff of the agency issuing the principal economic indicator who have been designated by the agency head to provide technical explanations of the data, employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time,” according to the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Statistical Policy Directive No. 3, adopted in 1985.
And then there’s him, again, as President, earning money while in the White House, smashing the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
Trump's company earned $40M from Washington hotel in 2017, disclosure shows
Not done there, he added yet more to the fuel of his own fire:
Schiff: Trump deal with ZTE a ‘violation of the emoluments clause’
There are more examples of him--and his family--earning money because of his Presidency, too, but I'll move on.
There’s his using his own, unsecured cell phone.
How Trump’s Unsecured iPhones Threaten National Security — And His Own
So check out what's happening around the White House, since the world knows he uses an unsecured Android phone. This broke this past week.
Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say
And why wouldn’t there by that “sophisticated cellphone spying” near the White House? When you know the most powerful man in the world is using an unsecured Android phone, get a hotel room near the White House and see what you can find.
Then there's the tariffs on imports he wants to impose---and on our own allies, no less.
Trudeau on Trump tariffs:
'I don't know' what he wants to accomplish
I tell you, folks, to repeat, this Presidency is, yes, bizarre, unprecedented and very likely, in more than one way, illegal.
Stay tuned.
And God--or somebody, something--help us.
