As a matter of tradition, the president gets an advance look at the monthly job numbers before they are released. The expectation is that POTUS will keep quiet about the figures, because dribbling out any information about them could influence the financial markets.

Donald Trump does not worry about such minor concerns. This morning, he tweeted.

Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2018

It seems fairly clear that Trump, unable to restrain himself, was giddily previewing his excitement about the figures. The economics world has responded with a collective face palm. Here’s CNBC’s John Harwood:

presidents get the numbers ahead of time with the expectation they will not prematurely disseminate market-moving information https://t.co/QHwRVzYQZN — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 1, 2018

Conservative wonk James Pethokoukis:

Former Obama administration Council of Economic Advisers chairman Jason Furman:

You should have gotten the employment numbers from the Council of Economic Advisers yesterday.



And if this tweet is conveying inside information about a particularly good jobs number you should never get them in advance from the Council of Economic Advisers again. https://t.co/Qd3ig89onT — Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) June 1, 2018

You get the idea. The first and only rule for presidents about the jobs numbers is that you don’t talk about the jobs numbers, at least until they’re out. But hey, nothing matters anymore, right?

Update, 9:46 AM:

After the jobs report was released this morning (shocker, it was really good!), the White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that Trump had in fact seen it on Thursday night, and excused his tweet as appropriate because he “didn’t put the numbers out.”