More Than a Dozen U.S. Officials Sold Stocks Before Trump’s Tariffs Sent the Market Plunging
More Than a Dozen U.S. Officials Sold Stocks Before Trump’s Tariffs Sent the Market Plunging
Records show well-timed trades by executive branch employees and congressional aides. Even if they had no insider information, ethics experts say such trading undermines faith in government and the markets.
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Brief Devils advocate here: the tariffs were public knowledge since at least February. I also sold a bunch of stocks before the market tanked.
Trump is quoted saying “there is going to be some pain” in early February while discussing tariffs on Mexico and Canada. That’s enough insight to make me sell, and that was well before most of these insiders sold their position.
It’s very, very, very difficult to prove insider trading unfortunately. It does look bad from a trust standpoint however, and I agree with that sentiment. It looks especially bad when the president and CEOs laugh about how much money they’ve made while standing in the Oval Office.
Insider trading or not, the optics don’t look good.
They sold immediately before the announcement. They knew the exact timing to gain the most money they could, using their prior knowledge. They weren't guessing what would happen in the vague future. They had concrete knowledge the announcement was going to happen, how much the tariffs were for, and when.
Were you also buying contracts on SPY when it was hanging out around 515?