"I would go out and buy stocks today," the Ohio Republican told reporters the day after Trump announced a 10% baseline tariff and a host of steeper "reciprocal" tariffs on dozens of countries. "Lots of opportunity, lots of companies that have great valuation. There's no reason that Apple stock should be down."
Moreno's financial advice may have been a bit early — the market tumbled even further in the days after he made those remarks — but broadly, he was correct. Stock markets
regained
much of their prior value after Trump announced on Wednesday that much of his tariffs would be
paused for 90 days
.
Now, some Democrats are lobbing accusations of insider trading and market manipulation, pointing to Trump's declaration earlier that morning that it was a "
great time to buy.
" In letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Government Ethics, Democratic senators have argued that the president or others close to him may have bought up stock with the knowledge that markets were about to rebound due to a tariff pause.
"We need to get to the bottom of the possible stock manipulation that is unfolding before the American people," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Thursday.
The White House, for its part, is denying the allegations.
"It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering," White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. "Democrats railed against China's cheating for decades, and now they're playing partisan games instead of celebrating President Trump's decisive action yesterday to finally corner China."
There's not yet any evidence that any Trump allies traded on prior knowledge of the president's announcement, and we may not have a full picture of which politicians even bought the dip until mid-to-late May. Members of Congress and executive branch officials, including cabinet members, have
45 days
to disclose any stock trades they've made.
Some are calling on their colleagues to come clean before then. "Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote on X. "You might as well get it out into the public domain now because it's coming later, and there's nothing that you can do about it," Jeffries said.
'We're not here to feed at the trough'
One lawmaker who has already
disclosed
purchasing stocks during the dip: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump's staunchest allies in Congress.
On Monday, the Georgia Republican plunged somewhere between $19,000 and $285,000 into the stock market, buying up shares in 17 different companies — including Apple — in the day's after Trump's announcement. Many of those stocks have enjoyed a net gain since then.
In a statement to BI, Greene said that her trades had been made by someone else on her behalf. She also dismissed the idea of putting her assets into a blind trust, as some ethics-minded lawmakers advocate.
"After many successful years of running my own business, I ran for Congress to bring that mindset to Washington. Now that I'm proudly serving the people of Northwest Georgia, I have signed a fiduciary agreement to allow my financial advisor to control my investments," Greene said. "All of my investments are reported with full transparency. I refuse to hide my stock trades in a blind trust like many others do."
The episode has once again brought the issue of stock trading in Congress to the fore. The trades made by former House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi's husband
have long been a source of controversy, and for years, lawmakers in both parties have been trying to ban the practice.
"Frankly, I don't care if Democrats did it, I don't care if Republicans did it, we're not here to feed at the trough," Ocasio-Cortez said. "There is either an appearance or, at worst, an active intent when you have this conflict of interest."
Many lawmakers have run for office in recent years on banning stock trading, or have voluntarily opted not to trade themselves. That includes Moreno, who told BI this week that he ultimately didn't take his own advice.
"I don't buy stocks," Moreno said, adding that during his
2024 Senate campaign
, he agreed to sell off his stocks "so that we wouldn't have uncomfortable, weird conversations like this."
Sen. Josh Hawley told BI that the controversy was all the more reason to pass his bill to ban not just lawmakers, but executive branch officials from trading stocks. "That would take care of most of those concerns," he said.
Still, the Missouri Republican was dismissive of the actual claims of insider trading.
"The President didn't decide what he was going to do until he did it," Hawley said. "This idea that it's some elaborate insider scheme? Democrats have too much time on their hands."
