Trump under fire: Stock market manipulation allegations soar

Public radio station NPR cites Richard Painter, the chief ethics lawyer of the White House during George W. Bush's presidency:

We can’t have senior public officials, including the president, talking about stock prices and where to buy or to sell at the same time as they are making and announcing decisions that have a dramatic impact on stock prices.

Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota, refers to the allegations against Trump involving insider trading. Insider trading entails using confidential information about companies, trends, or decisions that impact the capital markets to gain benefits or favor selected investors.

Before announcing the decision on Wednesday to suspend tariffs on imports from nearly 60 countries for 90 days, Trump wrote on social media that "now is the best time to buy stocks." Once the official information about delaying the implementation of the tariffs was released, stock market indices soared, and investors who had previously bought assets saw huge gains from the rebound in stock prices.

If anyone in President Bush's administration had issued such a public statement recommending specific investment decisions, that person would likely have been fired," Painter said, emphasizing that Trump is at least "pushing the boundaries" of acceptable political behavior.

American Newsweek points out that, for example, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most fervent "Trumpists," bought many shares a few days before the decision to suspend tariffs, when stock prices were plummeting. The magazine notes that the rebound in the prices of these securities must have brought Taylor Greene very large benefits. This raises the question of whether people close to Trump might have known that, after a significant decline in stock prices, a rebound in their value would occur.

Although lawmakers are allowed to buy and sell stocks, they are required by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act to publicly disclose any stock trades valued over $1,000 within 45 days of the transaction, comments Newsweek.

The Arizona Republic writes that on the same day he announced the 90-day suspension of tariffs, Trump hosted a group of "ultra-wealthy" guests in the Oval Office and, jokingly or not, told them how much they had profited from his actions.

The President pointed to Charles Schwab and said that he made $2.5 billion that day, reports AR. Schwab is a billionaire, the founder of the international financial services company Charles Schwab Corporation, and an essential sponsor of the Republican Party.

Democratic Party politicians accused the president of market manipulation and called on the government ethics office to review transactions made by Trump administration officials who might have known details of his tariff plans.

In a letter, senators Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego wrote: "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 to inform their investment decisions."

The chances that this case will be resolved are slim, media and lawyers assess.

With Republicans holding the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, there appears to be minimal willingness to challenge Trump’s actions. This situation mirrors the approach of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which oversees insider trading cases. On Wednesday, the Senate approved Trump’s appointment of Paul Atkins as the new SEC chairman. Additionally, in February, the president expanded his oversight of independent market regulators, such as the SEC, through an executive order, as NPR reports.

Neither the Justice Committee nor the Senate Finance Committee will deal with the allegations of market manipulation. "They are controlled by Republicans who either worship Trump or fear him. Or both," writes the Arizona Republic.