WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Friday broke with decades of protocol and commented publicly about the highly anticipated jobs report data 69 minutes before they were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Treasury yields moved sharply higher within seconds of a tweet from Trump that said he was “looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.” He had never issued such a tweet before. 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 mornings jobs data are released. That means traders were probably making investment decisions based on signals they took from Trump’s post.

One hour and nine minutes later, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that 223,000 jobs were created in May, beating expectations, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent.

White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said on CNBC on 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. He tweeted “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.”

A positive jobs report does not necessarily mean the stock market will go up, as investors could see it as a signal that the Federal Reserve will move more aggressively to raise interest rates to keep the economy from overheating.

In fact, a strong jobs report often leads investors to sell equities and buy government debt because they will reap the benefits of higher interest rates. That’s why giving the market any kind of clue ahead of time is extremely unusual. A federal rule from 1985 prohibits any federal worker from commenting on the jobs report for at least one hour after its release, though the Trump administration has breached that standard a few times by commenting less than an hour after the release. But administration officials never appeared to comment before the report came out as Trump did on Friday.

Jason Furman, who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, said this data has remained closely guarded for years, with many Cabinet members even shielded from the information until it becomes public.

“It’s market moving and it creates instability and uncertainty in markets,” Furman said. “But secondly, and fundamentally, it’s really important that government statistics are perceived as being nonpartisan, nonpolitical data.”

During the Obama administration, Trump would often ridicule the jobs data, saying it consisted of fake numbers assembled by Democrats to make the economy look rosy. He has championed the data since becoming president, though, particularly when it reflects strength.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, says the government takes extreme measures to keep this information closely held to try and protect it from any sort of politicization or the appearance that it has been tampered with.

“The idea that someone who is political would let information out ahead of time undermines that independence and credibility at a time when it’s under attack pretty aggressively already,” she said.

Trump has tried to tie the success of his presidency to the success of the economy. In November and December, he routinely posted daily updates on the rising stock market, attributing it to his tenure. He has largely stopped this since the Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked in January, sliding down more than 2,000 amid fears of a prolonged trade war.

The economy has strengthened during his time in office, though many metrics are mostly consistent with the post-financial-crisis recovery that began in 2009. Unemployment has steadily improved, economic growth has ticked up slightly, and wage growth has been slight.

The 1985 rule that bars White House officials from releasing details of jobs reports ahead of time was written by the Reagan administration.

“All employees of the executive branch who receive prerelease distribution of information and data estimates are responsible for assuring that there is no release prior to the official release time,” the rule says.

Kudlow said Friday that Trump didn’t breach this prohibition because he didn’t reveal the precise numbers in the jobs report, only telling people on Twitter that he was “looking forward” to its release.

Trump has, on at least one other occasion, publicly revealed the contents of a tightly held government report before its release. In April 2017, he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that the Treasury Department would not soon label China a “currency manipulator.” Government officials have traditionally kept that information very confidential before it is released by Treasury.