Democrats in Congress are raising alarms about a number of suspicious trades made by someone in the moments leading up to President Trump’s announcement he would lower tariffs for 90 days. One lucky bet made by an investor yielded a 2,100 percent return on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump said on Truth Social at 1:18 PM on Wednesday that tariffs on all countries which did not retaliate against the United States would face lower tariffs, which sent stock markets skyrocketing. That morning, the president wrote that Wednesday would be “A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
Between Mr. Trump’s call to buy and his announcement that tariffs would be lowered, an unusually high volume of call options were purchased, bets that would go on to yield massive returns later in the day. At around 1 PM on Wednesday, the volume of trading on call options on an S&P 500 ETF increased by about ten-fold. Call options purchased for the Nasdaq index similarly shot up, yielding a return of about 2,100 percent in just one hour.
Most interestingly, the calls were set to expire at the end of the day on Wednesday, making it at least appear that someone had knowledge of Mr. Trump’s change in policy ahead of time. If the markets had not reacted the way they did to Mr. Trump’s announcement, those options would have been nearly worthless at the end of trading for the day.
The suspicious trading activity led many lawmakers on Capitol Hill to call for investigations into possible insider trading, whether it be by their colleagues or members of the Trump administration. Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among those on Capitol Hill who said it appeared someone was trading on non-public knowledge.
“Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now. I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X Thursday morning. “Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things.”
Two senators are asking the White House to also disclose any information about what administration officials — and those close to them — knew about the Trump announcement, and when they knew it.
“We write to request an urgent inquiry into whether President Trump, his family, or other members of the administration engaged in insider trading or other illegal financial transactions, informed by advanced knowledge of non-public information regarding his changes to tariff policy, yesterday or at any time during this administration,” Senator Schiff and Senator Gallego, both Democrats, said in a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and the administration trade representative, Jamieson Greer.
The senators point to President Trump’s Truth Social post — which was visible to anyone who follows him on the social media platform — on Wednesday morning in which he told people that now was a “GREAT” time to buy. Less than four hours later, the president announced his new tariff pause, which lowers import taxes for most of America’s trading partners.
“This sequence of events raises grave legal and ethics concerns. The President, his family, and his advisors are uniquely positioned to be privy to and take advantage of non-public information,” the lawmakers say. They are demanding that the White House turn over any periodic transaction reports detailing trades made “in proximity” to the president’s tariff pause announcement.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, along with the FBI, typically investigate allegations of insider trading like the ones that are being levied now by Democrats. The SEC declined to comment for this story.
While it is not possible for the public to see who was responsible for the trades in question, law enforcement has an impressive track record of cracking down on those using non-public information for personal benefit. Though the investigations were later dropped, at least three members of the U.S. Senate were investigated in 2020 for their alleged use of information from a classified briefing ahead of the pandemic to sell assets before the market collapse.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Thursday that insider trading is a bipartisan problem in Congress, though she is concerned that prior knowledge of the tariff decisions enriched certain people.
“I’m very interested in the May 15 disclosure deadline for members of Congress and what members of Congress — Republican or Democrat — were trading the day before and the morning of the tariff announcement,” she said, referring to the legally required date for any lawmakers to declare trades made within 45 days. “The first 100 days of the Trump administration has been about self-enrichment and about who is wealthy to get in the door of the Oval Office.”
It appears that many members of the administration were completely left out of the loop on Wednesday when Mr. Trump was writing a statement announcing the tariff pause on Wednesday. Several members of Congress informed the Sun that the deputy treasury secretary, Michael Faulkender, made no mention of any kind of pause during a lunch with him on Wednesday.
The president’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, was unable to answer any questions about the specifics of the tariff pause when the news broke as he was testifying before a House committee. “What are the details of the pause?” Congressman Steven Horsford asked Mr. Greer shortly after it was announced.
“We’re going to have about 90 days,” Mr. Greer said in response, seemingly confused about other details.
“So the trade representative hasn’t spoken to the president of the United States about a global reordering of trade?” Mr. Horsford added, nearly yelling. “It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you!”
Mr. Horsford called for an investigation on Thursday morning. “If trade decisions are being timed to manipulate markets — or worse, exploited by officials for personal or political gain — there must be an investigation. This isn’t just unethical, it could be illegal,” he writes on X.
