On June 1, 2018, at 7:21 AM ET, President Trump tweeted, “Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning” one hour before the Bureau of Labor Statistics officially released the May 2018 jobs report. This violated a long-standing rule that executive branch officials with access to official statistics must wait one hour after publication before publicly commenting. Stocks jumped immediately following the tweet, causing a flurry of trading activity.
Market participants interpreted Trump's 'looking forward“ comment as a hint that the numbers would be positive. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said: ”If this had happened during the Clinton or Obama Administrations it would have been a major scandal with investigations following." The Council of Economic Advisers apologized to BLS, and Trump reportedly promised not to tweet about jobs reports in advance—a promise he later broke.
No formal investigation was launched and no penalties were imposed, despite laws providing for up to five years in jail or $250,000 fine for breaching data security. BLS emails show internal discussion of potential government investigations and apologetic White House staffers.