Economy adds surprisingly strong 223,000 new jobs; media upset that Trump tweeted about it in advance

The things the media will turn into a controversy when it involves Donald Trump. The actual news here is that we had a very decent month of job creation, with 223,000 being added to the roles and U-3 unemployment falling to 3.8 percent. You actually wonder how long the economy can keep this up without more people rejoining the workforce and causing the U-3 rise while the U-6 falls, but any way you look at it, 223,000 new jobs is very good. As we’ve said before, it could be better, but it’s a solid report and it’s further evidence that Trump’s economic policies are working. (At least the ones that don’t involve trade, but we dealt with that elsewhere.)

So how can the media turn news like this into a reason to attack Donald Trump?

You actually wonder how long the economy can keep this up without more people rejoining the workforce and causing the U-3 rise while the U-6 falls, but any way you look at it, 223,000 new jobs is very good. As we’ve said before, it could be better, but it’s a solid report and it’s further evidence that Trump’s economic policies are working. (At least the ones that don’t involve trade, but we dealt with that elsewhere.) So how can the media turn news like this into a reason to attack Donald Trump? You have to give them credit for creativity. They will come up with something, and they did. They’re all over him this morning for this tweet:

Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2018

That’s it. That’s all he said. Yet the media are blowing a gasket because, as the Washington Post puts it, this “broke protocol”:

White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said on CNBC Friday morning that he briefed Trump on the details of the report Thursday evening, calling him on Air Force One. That means Trump had detailed knowledge of the specifics of the jobs report, knowing that it would be strong and better than expected. The jobs data come out once a month and often can lead to massive buying or selling trends on Wall Street, depending on how the information is received. It is extremely closely held and kept under tight control until it is released at 8:30 a.m. on the first Friday of each month. A select number of administration officials receive the data the day before, but officials are prohibited from tipping their hand about what the numbers reveal. “He chose to tweet,” Kudlow said, downplaying the matter. “You can read into that 10 different things if you want to read into it.” Kudlow said of the way he personally handled it, giving it to Trump the evening before, “by law and custom, that is correct.”

But it led to an outcry from Democrats and Republicans, particularly veterans of past White House teams, who said the restrictions in place are meant to both prevent the politicization of these reports and leaks of market-moving information. Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary to President George W. Bush, said of Trump’s post, “This certainly was a no-no. The advance info is sacrosanct – not to be shared.” Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said it was a remarkable breach that in the past would have led to multiple investigations.

If that is actually true then Washington needs to step back and re-assess how it does everything, which of course is not a very hard-to-believe notion. I could get into the fact that Trump didn’t actually share any information, but that would give far too much credence to this whole non-controversy. The job numbers were good. The president knew about it the night before and he teased it on Twitter. The republic will be fine, “breach of protocol” or not. Geez.

Dan Calabrese——Bio and Archives

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