By Bloomberg NewsApril 15, 2025
U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene sold U.S. Treasuries and bought stakes in Amazon.com Inc., Blackstone Inc. and Tesla Inc. the day before U.S. President Donald Trump put a 90-day pause on retaliatory tariffs and prompted a market rally.
Greene, the Georgia Republican who’s a close ally of Trump, revealed the transactions in a financial disclosure last week.
The trades were part of a shift in Greene’s investments executed over two days, April 8 and 9. On the morning of the 9th, Trump posted on social media that it was a “great time to buy.” About four hours later, he announced he was suspending tariffs, propelling the S&P 500 index to a 9.5% gain, its biggest rally since 2008.
Greene’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congressional Democrats have urged investigations into whether people connected to Trump profited from the timing of the tariff announcements.
In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said she did not know which officials may have had advance knowledge, but called it “unconscionable” that insiders may have profited from the market volatility.
The disclosure reports only require members to list values of transactions in broad ranges, and do not contain specific times of execution or cost basis, so it’s unclear precisely how many of Greene’s trades happened before Trump broke the news of the tariff pause.
But at least US$11,011 to $165,000 in purchases came on April 8. As of 11:20 a.m. Tuesday in New York, shares of Blackstone, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Tesla traded higher than at any point on that day.
Over the two days, her stock purchases totaled $21,021 to $315,000. She sold $50,001 to $100,000 of US Treasuries on April 8.
Among the other names in Greene’s purchases were chipmakers Nvidia Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Qualcomm Inc., along with apparel companies Lululemon Athletica Inc. and Nike Inc.
Gregory Korte, Bloomberg News
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
By AFP
April 11, 2025
US President Donald Trump's annoucement of a pause in tariffs triggered a historic stock market rebound - Copyright AFP Lindsey Parnaby
A group of US senators on Friday urged the government’s markets corruption watchdog to investigate whether President Donald Trump or White House insiders broke securities laws ahead of his dramatic reversal on global tariffs.
The six Democrats — led by Massachusetts progressive Elizabeth Warren — noted in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Trump posted on his website Truth Social early Wednesday that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
A few hours later, Trump announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs against dozens of countries, triggering a historic stock market rebound and the best day for the S&P 500 since the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.
“We urge the SEC to investigate whether the tariff announcements… enriched administration insiders and friends at the expense of the American public,” senators said.
The letter urged the SEC to probe whether “any insiders, including the president’s family, had prior knowledge of the tariff pause that they abused to make stock trades ahead of the president’s announcement.”
Trump signed his Truth Social post with the letters “DJT” — both his initials and the stock market abbreviation for his media company, Trump Media & Technology Group.
The company’s shares closed up 21.67 percent on Wednesday.
The senators called on the SEC to investigate whether the president, his donors or other insiders had engaged in market manipulation, insider trading or other violations of securities laws.
SEC chairman Paul Atkins has history with Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, who has accused him of having conflicts of interest over his ties to the financial services industry.
He is not obliged to agree to the demand for an investigation.
The letter, whose signatories include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, came amid concern over the growing number of avenues through which Trump and his family can monetize the power of the presidency, although no evidence of corruption had emerged.
Days before his inauguration, Trump released a “memecoin” — a digital cryptocurrency token with no inherent value — opening the door for secret donations from foreign buyers.
“Now anyone in world can essentially deposit money into bank account of President of USA with a couple clicks,” his former aide Anthony Scaramucci posted on social media after the launch.
“Every favor — geopolitical, corporate or personal — is now on sale, right out in the open.”
The White House told The Washington Post that Trump’s Truth Social post sought only to “reassure” the public and that he had a responsibility to “reassure markets and Americans about their economic security.”
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