Now isn’t this interesting? Trump and his tariffs could possibly be playing with the stock market deliberately. Hmmmmm. Senator Adam Schiff called on Congress to investigate whether tRump engaged in insider trading or market manipulation with his on-again, off-again tariffs. I have to say this is something I *never* thought of in regards to the damn tariffs. I figured he was screwing with the world and wrecking our alliances to get what he wanted. I figured he thought it would make him look powerful, which was just an asinine thing to do and hurt us more than anyone else. I won’t get started on the whole China “war”.
Schiff’s comments, which had not been previously reported, followed after the S&P 500 surged on Wednesday after Agent Orange paused the tariffs. “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social minutes after the market opened on Wednesday, along with the letters “DJT,” which stands for both his initials and the ticker for his media company. If you look at this more deeply, yea, it starts to look fishy. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Such investigations would typically fall under 2 different committees, whose leaders have largely avoided conflicts with the White House. Individual lawmakers can look into something using personal staff, although it would lack subpoena power. Arizona freshman Senator Ruben Gallego joined Schiff in signing a letter sent to the White House. From Time: “… to request an urgent inquiry into whether President Trump, his family, or other members of the administration engaged in insider trading or other illegal financial transactions” with advanced knowledge of non-public information about the tariff policy change. It might not do much good and send Traitor Tot into a fury, but someone there has to know an answer to this. Or they might have hints but no certain knowledge.
From Time again: “This sequence of events raises grave legal and ethics concerns,” read the letter, which was shared with TIME. “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. For instance, stock in Elon Musk’s company, Tesla, increased 18 percent immediately following the President’s announcement to pause most tariffs, which Mr. Musk had publicly opposed.” It might not send anyone into a panic, but someone is likely working on spin, spin, spin.
And Senator Schiff has not received a response to his request in February, asking about Musk complying with conflict-of-interest reporting rules, considering his work with the White House. Now that’s another thing that I had noticed in passing, bearing in mind everything Musk has been doing. I believe the media had asked this question and not gotten an answer either.
The timing of Trump’s announcement—and the market rally that followed—has raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill. “When my own barber asks me whether Donald Trump is selling short or doing this to try to make money for himself, it shows that a lot of people are pretty suspicious about what’s going on,” Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, tells TIME on Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, Rep. Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat, was one of the first to question whether the tariff pause was tied to market manipulation, as the news came out in the middle of a heated hearing with Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, who had vigorously defended the tariffs. Horsford shouted, “This is amateur hour. You just got the rug pulled out from under you.” He demanded to know whether the administration had deliberately moved the markets. “This is not a game. This is real life,” Horsford said.
Schiff sees a pattern in Trump’s economic policymaking. “I think what American businesspeople need is some certainty, some predictability,” he said. “They’re getting anything but. Americans who have seen their retirement savings wiped out need to be made whole.” Gee, ya think? Senator Schiff doesn’t play. He would not have sent that letter without having something to back it up. And kudos to Senator Gallego for joining in. But they are not the only 2 who have noticed, just the first to do something. I think they could get more support than they might expect. And at least they don’t have Speaker Mikey Johnson to deal with yet.
I’m going to say I kinda feel silly that I had not even *thought* of such a thing. I guess it’s due to a lack of interest in the stock market, except to see what major and strange thing is going on for the day. A friend mentioned this article to me, so I thought I could take a look. I’d call this explosive. I’m looking forward to seeing what might happen!
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Good work, Susan! Every single issue with Trump and the whole administration can be traced to the evil love of their Lord, the almighty dollar!! 🤬
Insider trading is of course illegal and a Democratic majority in the House would impeach Trump again!…Third time’s a charm!! 🤣
You can go to jail for insider trading. If convicted, individuals can face imprisonment of up to 20 years and significant fines, because insider trading involves using non-public, material information to make profitable trades.
The maximum civil penalty for insider trading is the greater of $1,000,000 or three times the amount of the profit gained or loss avoided as a result of the violation. In Trump’s case involving possible billions, $1M is peanuts and worth the crime!!
The federal statute of limitations for insider trading is generally five years from the date of the alleged fraud for civil enforcement actions, but it can be extended to ten years for certain disgorgement claims. Add all the conspiracy charges that can easily be made here and, once again, the Orange-utan 🦧should wear an orange jumpsuit the rest of his life!! 🤞🤞👏👏
I’m not sure anything could be done to him, or attempted, that he couldn’t block. Getting the evidence would be one hell of a challenge, let alone making it stick. I also don’t know if this would fall under the “absolute immunity” bullsh!t or not.
Cleora, sorry, but a third impeachment will go nowhere unless there’s a significant shift in the attitudes of at least half the GOP members of the Senate by that point. It’s true that the GOP have far more seats in play (22 GOP seats are up compared to 13 Dems and 2 of the GOP seats are special elections to replace seats vacated by Rubio and Vance) and we only need to win 4 seats to win a Senate majority (including the two Independents who caucus with the Dems). BUT. You still need 67 Senators to REMOVE a President from office which means, even if we get that simple majority comprised of 49 Dems and 2 Indies, you still have 49 GOPers to deal with. And at least 1/3 of them would have to vote “guilty” to get rid of Drumpf.
Granted, if the GOP should lose just 4 seats, we might see more Senate GOPers rebuild their spines and stand up to Drumpf but it will also depend on how brutal their own primary campaigns are. If any of them are seen as less-than-fully subservient to Drumpf, they’re going to face a Drumpf-fluffing challenger (granted, such challenges combined with the GOP’s losing 4 races could help them find their spines again) but it still seems REALLY unlikely for a third of the remaining 49 GOP Senators to kick Drumpf to the curb. Even when Drumpf was out of office, and the Dems had the technical majority (48 Dems, 2 Indies and 50 GOPers; an agreement was reached to allow the Dems to be the “majority”), we still got no more than 7 GOPers to hold Drumpf accountable for inciting the insurrection–and the man had already been out of office for three weeks (McConnell actually used that reasoning to excuse his vote of “not guilty”–that former Presidents couldn’t be impeached).
Does the Trump regime consist of manly people involved in illegal insider trading for fun and profit?
Is the sky mainly blue?
Did Rose Kennedy have a black dress?
*snortlaugh*