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Democratic lawmakers in Congress are considering ways to curtail insider trading by federal policymakers, especially in the wake of President Donald Trump’s tariff actions that have resulted in market declines and recoveries.
Stock markets responded negatively after Trump imposed wide-ranging tariffs on imports from dozens of countries earlier this month. Days after his initial announcement, Trump made a post on Truth Social telling his followers “this is a great time to buy.” Hours later, the president announced that he was reversing most of the tariffs, reducing tariff rates for most countries to 10 percent.
Trump’s actions caused many Democratic lawmakers to question whether he was purposely manipulating markets.
“Trump is creating giant market fluctuations with his on-again, off-again tariffs,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) said in a social media post. “These constant gyrations in policy provide dangerous opportunities for insider trading.”
“Who in the administration knew about Trump’s latest tariff flip flop ahead of time? Did anyone buy or sell stocks, and profit at the public’s expense?” Schiff further questioned, calling for an investigation into the matter.
Like Schiff, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has also called for an inquiry, specifically into whether congressional Republicans benefited from the market changes.
“Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now,” Ocasio-Cortez warned after Trump’s changes to the tariff rates, adding:
I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor. Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things. It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress.
Notably, Ocasio-Cortez, along with other Democratic lawmakers, submitted a bill earlier this year that would ban members of Congress from owning and trading stocks while in office.
“When members have access to sensitive information, they should not be trading in the stock market on it. It blatantly erodes the public’s trust in government,” she said in January. “The information we have access to as members of Congress should solely be used to serve the American people, not ourselves.”
Democratic leadership also appears to be opening up to the idea of at least some restrictions on stock trading among federal policymakers. In an interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki on Monday night, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) suggested that he’d support legislation similar to the bill promoted by Ocasio-Cortez.
Noting that Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had made a significant number of stock trades during the tariff-induced market dip (and likely benefited from Trump’s Truth Social announcement shortly afterward), Jeffries said the Georgia congresswoman was “exhibit A” when it came to lawmakers likely committing fraud and lying to the American public.
“We are seeing corruption unfold before us in real time,” he added.
During the interview, Jeffries also promised that Democrats would “shine a spotlight” on corruption, and further pledged to support a bill banning lawmakers from trading on the markets while in office.
“We do need to change the law so that sitting members of Congress cannot trade stock, period. Full stop,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries did stop short of endorsing the full legislation proposed by Ocasio-Cortez, however — while he said on Monday that he backed a ban on trading among members of Congress, he didn’t say that lawmakers should be banned entirely from owning stocks.
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