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"Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning," he tweeted. The problem: The president's tweet came before the release of the report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which breaks protocol about not commenting on the report before its public release. Trump's tweet hinted a positive report, providing a signal to markets. Presidents typically get to see the numbers the day before, per a longstanding tradition. Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, confirmed that he told the president about the numbers on Thursday night aboard Air Force One. Friday morning's report was indeed positive: U.S. employers added 223,000 jobs in May, and the unemployment rate slipped to an 18-year-low of 3.8%. Kudlow told reporters that the president did not reveal the details of the report and said it was no big deal that he tweeted a preview of its release. “Why not?” Kudlow said. “He didn’t give any numbers.” Still, Jason Furman, a Harvard Ken...

The White House announced that it would end a two-month exemption for the EU, Canada and Mexico from the 25% steel and 10% aluminum import tariffs announced in March, once again pointing to national security concerns as a primary motivating factor. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said during a call with reporters on Thursday that slow progress on the NAFTA renegotiation is another reason why Canada and Mexico will now be subject to the import tariffs. The tariffs will go into effect on the trio of countries at midnight. The decision sparks new concerns of a trade war with three of the United States’ most important trading partners. When asked about the possibility of escalating tensions, Ross said it would be up to the other countries to respond in kind to the president’s decision Thursday. He also said the administration is eager to stay at the negotiating table with all three countries. Three other countries that were exempted from the initial tariff implementation – Argentina, A...