Senate Democrats are escalating their allegations that President Donald Trump‘s administration may have engaged in insider trading before announcing a 90-day pause on his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the ranking member on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) led several Democrats in urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Trump manipulated the market in the run-up to pausing the tariffs.
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“Specifically, we ask the SEC to determine whether President Trump, any members of his Cabinet, or other donor, insiders, and Administration officials engaged in insider trading, market manipulation, or
other securities laws violations on April 9, 2025, when President Trump announced that it was a
‘GREAT TIME TO BUY’ into the stock market,” the senators wrote in their letter to SEC chairman Paul Atkins on Friday.
Trump’s call to buy ended with the letters “DJT,” which is the president’s initials and also the stock ticker symbol for Trump Media and Technology Group Corp., the operator of Trump’s social media platform Truth Social. Those who headed Trump’s call were poised to bring in a windfall.
Hours after Trump encouraged the public to invest in the stock market he announced the tariff pause which caused a surge with the S&P 500 rising 9.5%, the Dow Jones rising 7.9%, and the Nasdaq composite rising 12.2%.
Previously, the stock market faced severe losses after Trump slapped a 10% baseline tariff on most U.S. trading partners and a wave of additional tariffs on nearly 90 countries. The ongoing financial crisis ultimately led Trump to back away from the levies.
However, a 145% retaliatory tariff against China still remains.
“It is unclear which officials and affiliates of President Trump had advance knowledge of his plans to delay tariffs–but insiders may have known that he was going to announce a tariff pause and that the market would improve,” the senators alleged.
Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), were the other Democrats who signed onto the SEC letter.
The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News in a statement that “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.”
“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,” Desai also said.
The Democratic senators, however, claimed, “It is unconscionable that as American families are concerned about their financial security during this economic crisis entirely manufactured by the President, insiders may have actively profited from the market volatility and potentially perpetrated financial fraud on the American public.”
The SEC declined to comment on the matter after the Washington Examiner contacted the agency. It is unclear whether the SEC will launch an investigation.
Multiple Democrats have previously called on Congress to investigate Trump’s actions surrounding the tariff pause.
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Schiff and Gallego sent a letter requesting an investigation to Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, and Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative.
“I am fully cognizant of the fact that the White House is probably the last place to be forthcoming about this or any other corruption in the administration,” said Schiff. “We in Congress need to do more than demand answers. We need to do the oversight necessary to get those answers.”