President Trump began his own thing on Wednesday after receiving some advice for those rattled over his sudden tariffs.
“Cool,” Trump told his followers on social media after the market opened up. Just a few minutes later, he wrote, “This is the best time to buy!!!”
Hours later, Trump soared the market when he suspended taxes for 90 days. The S&P 500 scored a few percentage points in minutes, heading towards its best day since the 2008 financial crisis recovery.
Shortly after Trump's suspension, Democrats and government ethics experts asked the most obvious questions. Has Trump given his followers a green light to cash out the stock price rise?
“How is this not a market manipulation?” Rep. Mike Levin, a California Democrat, said on social media he was referring to potentially illegal behavior. “If you're a Trump supporter and you did what he said and you bought it, you did something great. On the other hand, if you're a retired or someone of senior or middle class, you're not tolerant of risk and decide to sell, you've been screwed.”
News of Trump's suspension came as US trade representative Jamieson Greer testified on Capitol Hill. Nevada Democratic leader Stephen Horseford pushed him for Trump's purpose.
“It's not a market manipulation,” Greer said. “You are about to reset your global trading system.”
“How did you achieve either of these?” Horseford asked. “So, if it's not a market operation, what is it? Who is benefiting? Has the billionaires just become rich?”
White House officials have rejected such accusations because they alleged that Trump's post was intended to reassure Americans. They tried to turn his decision to remove most tariffs rather than surrender, but only after some of China's closest allies asked for a deal with the US.
“It is the US President's responsibility to reassure the market and Americans about economic security in the face of the fears of non-stop media,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. “Instead of grabbing straws to hold a partisan political convention, Democrats should focus on working with the administration to restore American greatness.”
Sen. Adam B. Schiff, a Democrat of California, said he would reach out to the White House and learn more about who knew Trump's impending decision to suspend tariffs. He said the flip-flop provided “a dangerous opportunity for insider trading.”
“Has someone bought and sold stocks and made a profit at the public expense?” Schiff asked on social media.
Kathleen Clark, a professor at Washington University Law School in St. Louis who focused on government ethics and corruption, said Trump's actions would “normally trigger an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Such investigators would be looking for evidence that Trump knew he was about to make an announcement that he would move the market, and provided clues to his followers, Clark said.
“If there is still a rule of law, a robust system of the rule of law, it will be investigated,” she said.
In a statement, the SEC, which considers possible violations of federal securities laws, declined to answer questions about Trump's post.
