Georgia Republican leader Marjorie Taylor Greene announced Monday that he bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shares on April 8th and 9th, the day before President Trump's announcement.
At the time, Green bought about $21,000 to $315,000 in stock. The day before Trump's move, she also dumped between $50,000 and $100,000 on a Treasury bill, according to required public disclosures made at the home.
The report comes as Congressional Democrats demanded an investigation into whether the president's trade movements aimed at manipulating the market and giving allies a favorable opportunity to trade insiders.
Members of Congress must report within 30 days of creating a stock transaction, but they simply need to mark a wide range rather than a specific dollar. Green's April 8th and nine deals (range $21 to $1,001 to $15,000 each) are some of the first members of Congress to be reported next month as lawmakers detail the financial moves as lawmakers are encouraging the president to encourage financial moves ahead of the tariff suspension.
“This is the best time to buy!!” Trump wrote on social media on the morning of April 9th. About four hours later, he said most tariffs have been suspended in all countries except China.
One of Trump's most loyal allies and one of the active stock traders, Greene, listened to his advice and seemed to be buying very large stocks. That day she bought shares at several companies, including Apple, which then rose about 5%. She also bought stakes in other technology companies and energy companies such as Devon Energy Corporation and pharmaceutical giant Merck & Company, according to her public disclosures.
The day before, she bought a share at Palantir, but its value rose 19%, with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Stocks rose 21% after that. She also sold the Treasury bill as government bond yields rose amid the tariff turmoil (Green had previously bought up to $500,000 by April 2, when Trump announced the vastest tariffs ever).
Green, chairman of the House Oversight Committee Doge subcommittee, did not respond to a request for comment. When her stock trading was considered in the past, she told Atlanta and the Journal's constitution that she relied on financial advisors to trade on her behalf and had no opinion on which companies are traded or when they wouldn't.
Lawmakers on both parties have long defended laws banning individual stock trading by Congressional members as a way to appeal to rising populist sentiment among their constituents.
The stock market turmoil caused by Trump's unstable moves over tariffs led Democrats to question who was financially winning. It's not only does Green seem to be leveraging the volatility of the market.
Pennsylvania Republican leader Rob Bresnahan appeared as one of the most active stock traders in the freshman class despite saying he wanted to ban Congressional stock trading during the campaign.
Bresnahan sold up to $50,000 in Alibaba shares on March 4th. Alibaba is an e-commerce giant with close ties with the Chinese Communist Party. The share price rose about 30% between Bresnahan's first purchase and his final sale.
A spokesperson for Bresnahan said he relies on financial advisors to trade stocks and never knows about the transaction before or occur. Alibaba's trade is part of a larger strategic equity package, she said. When reported in his disclosure, Bresnahan's team put in guardrails to prevent the stock from trading again.
Although there was no evidence of insider trading, Democrats focused on the possibility of fraud as a way to attack Trump's tariff moves, suggesting that he and his friends are exploiting decisions that hurt ordinary people.
“It's unconscious that, as American families are concerned about their financial security amid this economic crisis, fully manufactured by the president, insiders are actively profiting from market volatility and may have potentially acquired financial fraud among the American people.”
In the letter, they requested that Atkins open the investigation to determine whether Trump or “insider” is engaged in insider trading or other violations of securities laws.
Separately, New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on April 11 that Nasdaq's call volume was spiked ahead of Trump's announcement, saying, “A member of Congress who has purchased shares in the last 48 hours should probably disclose it now.” Ocasio-Cortez is a longtime supporter of a law banning Congressional members from trading stocks.
