- Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., launched an investigation into whether President Donald Trump or his allies benefited from market manipulation tied to sudden tariff policy reversals. He’s focusing on the timing of Trump’s public statements and the following financial gains.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s trading activity is under scrutiny, including up to $750,000 in Treasury bond purchases before Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.
- Schiff is calling for whistleblowers to step forward and vowing to pursue any credible leads.
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Did President Donald Trump just pull off the biggest insider trading move in history? That’s the question Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, asked as he launched an investigation into Trump’s recent tariff announcements — and whether the president or some around him profited from market manipulation, also known as insider trading.
On the morning of Wednesday, April 9, just minutes after the markets opened, and with stocks still reeling from four straight days of losses, Trump posted a message on Truth Social.
“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” Trump wrote, along with the letters “DJT,” his initials and the ticker symbol for Trump Media.
Less than four hours later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on additional tariffs, excluding China. The market responded by rallying. The S&P surged, Trump Media stock jumped more than 22% and Trump’s trust gained $415 million in value.
Schiff is not alone
Schiff said he believes this timing is no coincidence
“You may have seen earlier in the day, Trump tweeted this: ‘Now is a good time to buy,’” Schiff said on his YouTube channel. “The question is: Who knew what he was about to do? And did the people around him trade stock knowing the market was about to swing?”
Other Democrats, including Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., echoed those concerns.
Business journalists also raised flags.
“Given what this administration’s been doing, it would not shock me — and I hate to speculate — if we found out a bunch of elected officials either sold stocks last week, or worse, shorted the market,” CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin said on-air.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s market timing
One of those under scrutiny is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. Between middle to late March, before Trump’s tariff announcement. Greene purchased up to $750,000 in U.S. Treasury bonds, a typical hedge against a falling stock market.
Then, on April 2, Trump declared “Liberation Day” and announced sweeping new tariffs. Markets tanked, and Greene tweeted her support, calling it “a short-term correction that will pay dividends for American workers.”
But just days later — on April 3 and 4, while the markets were still deep in the red — Greene disclosed hundreds of thousands of dollars in new stock purchases, including shares in Apple and Amazon.
When Trump reversed course, pausing tariffs for most countries on April 9, the markets soared, with Apple stock jumping 12% and Amazon up 15%. The result netted big gains for anyone who bought in earlier.
Greene denied any wrongdoing, saying her purchases were routine investments made during a market downturn and not based on any privileged information.
Schiff determined to get answers
Schiff said Trump’s questionable timing on market-moving announcements is another example of a broader, troubling pattern. In the YouTube video, he pointed to Trump’s involvement in meme coins that reportedly netted its backers nearly $100 million.
While acknowledging that the Republican-led Congress and the White House may not cooperate, Schiff is appealing directly to potential whistleblowers.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of this — whether people were profiting off the pain of the American people,” Schiff said.
