The Atlantic

The Outrage Over Trump’s Market-Shaking Tweet

The president’s cryptic preview of May’s strong monthly jobs report broke yet another longstanding federal protocol.
Source: Bryan R. Smith / AFP / Getty Images

On its face, the tweet was one of the most innocuous President Trump has ever sent—a plain-vanilla reminder early Friday morning that the monthly federal jobs report was coming out in an hour’s time.

“Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning,” the president wrote at 7:21 a.m. ET.

No exclamation points. No all-caps. No gratuitous insults, partisan jabs, or demands that his opponentsbe investigated.

For Trump, this was boring, even low-energy. Except

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic8 min readAmerican Government
The Return of the John Birch Society
Michael Smart chuckled as he thought back to their banishment. Truthfully he couldn’t say for sure what the problem had been, why it was that in 2012, the John Birch Society—the far-right organization historically steeped in conspiracism and oppositi
The Atlantic17 min read
How America Became Addicted to Therapy
A few months ago, as I was absent-mindedly mending a pillow, I thought, I should quit therapy. Then I quickly suppressed the heresy. Among many people I know, therapy is like regular exercise or taking vitamin D: something a sensible person does rout
The Atlantic7 min readAmerican Government
The Americans Who Need Chaos
This is Work in Progress, a newsletter about work, technology, and how to solve some of America’s biggest problems. Sign up here. Several years ago, the political scientist Michael Bang Petersen, who is based in Denmark, wanted to understand why peop

Related Books & Audiobooks