Another presidential directive tossed aside

Donald Trump told us he would be an “unconventional” president.

Oh, man, has he ever delivered on that campaign promise.

Case in point: Trump fired off a tweet about an hour before the Labor Department announced the May jobs figures. He said he was “looking forward” to the announcement. It came and the numbers were good. They were great! Joblessness is now at 3.8 percent, the lowest in many years.

Although the president didn’t break any law with the tweet, he violated a directive handed down some years ago that counseled presidents to avoid scooping these reports. They idea is to protect the integrity of the announcement and avoid any premature reaction by big-time financial investors.

This guy, the president, just cannot control himself. Sure, the news was good. He wanted to share it. I can’t blame him for that. I can, however, question the judgment of a president who cannot exhibit any sort of discipline that all of his predecessors have shown.

His getting ahead of the jobs figures once again betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of the complexity of the office to which he was elected.

As I’ve noted before, the presidency of the United States is no place for on-the-job training.