On April 2nd, President Donald Trump announced his “Liberation Day” worldwide tariffs, resulting in a ruinous stock market sell-off not seen since the early days of COVID. Amidst the tumbling prices, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (a.k.a MTG) bought a slew of depressed stocks.
When Greene reported her stock purchases less than a week later, Democrats accused her of insider trading, calling for an investigation.
During a market rout, the optics of Greene’s busy stock purchases are far from ideal, but reports on her activity have been inaccurate, at best, and a distraction, at worst.
While it’s possible MTG knew that Trump’s 90-day pause on tariffs was imminent, the timing of her stock buys doesn’t entirely reflect it. According to Capitol Trades, Greene’s trades took place on April 2nd and 3rd, including purchases of Amazon, Lululemon, Restoration Hardware, and Dell.
These companies’ stock prices had cratered by approximately 40% at the time of her purchases. Trump announced the pause on tariffs on Wednesday April 9th.
In the time between MTG’s purchase and the 9th, most stocks continued to decline. If Greene knew of an eventual pause on tariffs, as a financial strategy, it doesn’t make much sense for her to immediately jump the gun on a slew of purchases the day after tariffs were announced.
The Eye of The Beholder
Prior to her tenure in Congress, Greene was worth around $700,000. Now, her net worth is estimated at around $22 million. She has a stake in Taylor Commercial Inc., a family-owned construction business, which makes up a significant portion of her wealth.
Asked if she made the stock purchases herself, she stated, “I have signed a fiduciary agreement to allow my financial advisor to control my investments. All of my investments are reported with full transparency.”
Her net worth likely went up considerably, if she had the foresight to predict the Wall Street rally would be short-lived. If not, her gains would likely be a bit more modest, but certainly much better than any retail investor, even the smartest among them, who weren’t privy to Trumpworld insider knowledge.
She was asked in a town hall about how Congresspeople get rich on a $175,000 salary, and she replied, “I don’t know. I haven’t found that money tree up there in Washington or printing machine that they all seem to have. It’s amazing, truly amazing,” adding, “[Nancy Pelosi] has some great stock tips.”
It seems that what most are reacting to is the perceived timing. Greene reported her stock purchases on April 8th, the day before Trump’s tariff reversal. So, if one isn’t paying attention that closely, it would appear she bought the day before Trump reversed course. But she didn’t. She only reported her transactions then.
How Did The Stocks Perform?
Much attention has been paid to individual stock picks, such as Restoration Hardware (RH), which initially plummeted, only to surge after Trump’s reversal. Certainly, Greene benefited, but, overall, a majority of Greene’s stock purchases are down from the price she bought in.
Furthermore, the fiduciary requirements of stock transactions performed by members of Congress only require the reporting of a financial range, not a specific number. That means that no one actually knows specifically what Greene invested. We’re left with a very broad range, so broad that it’s unclear if she’s currently in the red or black from her early April investments.
Clearly, with further exemptions having recently been made for smart phones and computers, some of these stocks could rise in the coming weeks. But, the timing of these exemptions and Greene’s stock trades aren’t exactly in lock-step.
A Bad Look
What’s clear is the bad optics of Greene’s substantial investments in early April. While the average person was white knuckling the decline of stock prices, a member of Congress was having a feeding frenzy. Then, Trump flip- flopped, a move that could easily look like corruption to benefit the rich. Indeed, as reported in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, on April 9th billionaires saw their biggest one day gain in the history of the index. $304 billion was added to their coffers.
On the very same day, in the Oval Office no less, Trump bragged how much he had made his billionaire guests with his erratic policies, pointing to the individual billionaire while naming the specific dollar amount. However, the trade war is far from over, and if bond market uncertainty says anything, there could be more pain in investors’ futures.
That said, it’s unclear who else in Congress has made timely investments in the market. Rules stipulate that members of Congress must report stock trades within 45 days of the transaction. So far Greene is the only member to report her trades, having done so almost immediately.
A Congress Above The Law
Many in Congress have proposed rules that prevent fellow members from investing in individual stocks. However, none of these proposals have ever been put to a meaningful vote, so the public is left with sound bites and social media posts to assuage their frustration.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: “Frankly, I don’t care if Democrats did it, I don’t care if Republicans did it, we’re not here to feed at the trough. There is either an appearance or, at worst, an active intent when you have this conflict of interest.”
It’s unlikely AOC’s words will influence Greene, who beyond accusations of insider trading, isn’t exactly celebrated for her decorum. On April 5th, a day after putting a whole lot of money in the market, Greene posted to X a Happy Birthday message to her 22-year-old son. It was sweet and motherly, except that she also included a link to his Venmo and encouraged her followers to “buy him a beer.”
Unimpressed with a multi-millionaire requesting beer money for her son, X users lambasted Greene. Eventually, she capitulated and deleted the post. It’s unlikely the criticism of her stock trades will have a similar effect.
All Roads Lead to Trump
When more members of Congress have disclosed their early April stock trades, evidence of insider trading will become much clearer. In the meantime, MTG’s trades, when seen in isolation, don’t say as much as clickbait headlines suggest.
What’s clear is the completely erratic nature of Trump’s policy making. After a week of the President and everyone in his orbit saying that tariffs were here to stay, he changed course on April 9th. Sycophants and profiteers celebrated his powers of negotiation, while all he really seemed to do was negotiate with reality and lose.
Explaining his reasoning to reporters, Trump said that “people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy.” It’s unclear how that relates to The Art of the Deal, as Speaker Mike Johnson suggested we had just seen in action, but there you have it.
It was either a master class in negotiation or an epic capitulation to a market in freefall, a declining dollar and a rising Treasury bond yield, all of which culminated in people getting “yippy.” In other words, things across the pond are going just great. The USA is well down the path of being great again, just ask Fox News.
Did MTG Commit Insider Trading?
Rather than MTG committing insider trading, it seems more likely that President Trump and his team didn’t anticipate the world’s response to Liberation Day tariffs and blinked. If anything, accusations that the President manipulated the market have more teeth than Greene committing insider trading.
When asked by reporters on April 9th how the 90-day moratorium came together, Trump vaguely suggested that he had been thinking of the tariff pause for a few days into that very morning. Indeed, that very morning, at 9:37 a.m., Trump posted on Truth Social: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.” And it was for those who listened. At least for now.
Author: Laird Dilorenzo
#Crypto #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #DeFi
Laird Dilorenzo is a hatchet thrower and wordsmith.
The editorial team at #DisruptionBanking has taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this article. This article is most definitely not financial advice.
