Donald Trump Believes He's Above the Law, Because He Is Above the Law

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 1, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 1, 2018 |

The jobs report came out this morning, and it showed continued improvement for the U.S. economy. In fact, the economy has been improving for basically the last 8 years. We added 220,000 more jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent. Those are good numbers, and I don’t care who is President, although I would note that Obama got it from 10 to 5, and Trump moved it the other 1.2 percent largely based on policies enacted by Obama (the dismantling of which is likely to make the inevitable downswing much worse).

But here’s the deal. An hour before those jobs numbers came out, Donald Trump hyped them with this tweet:

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

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

Until 8:30 a.m., those numbers are classified. Donald Trump’s tweet not only affected markets, but the tweet broke the law.

Do I care about something as insignificant as hyping the jobs report before it comes out? No, not really, and I’m certainly not going to be prudish about the act. But it’s the substance of the act that is vulgar. Trump knowingly broke the law here for no other reason than because he could. He’s like a toddler grinning at his parents as he eats the cookie he knows he’s not supposed to eat. But he also knows that he has very permissive parents in the Republican-controlled government, so he can do anything he fucking wants. He’s gonna eat that cookie, and afterward, he’s going to boast about eating that cookie.

“I ate that fucking cookie, and it was delicious. What are you going to do about it, huh? Huh?”

Nothing. We’re going to do nothing.

It’s part of the same pattern that Trump has engaged in since his inauguration. Hell, since his campaign. He does what he wants, and he does not give a shit, and the people who are supposed to be minding the kitchen don’t care, either. Trump believes that the President should have certain powers — as long as he is President — and he is going to exercise those powers, whether he has them or not. Today, it’s the jobs numbers. Yesterday, it was ZTE. The day before that, it was Qatar. Before that, it was Comey. He acts like a King, because our Congress allows him to act like a King.

What are you going to do about it?

Probably just tweet.

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

All hail, King Trump.