Has Donald Trump been insider trading? Democrats demand inquiry

At 9:37 p.m. ET on 9 April, President Donald Trump posted a message on social media that said, ‘It is a good time to buy.’

Hours later, the markets crashed as America’s reciprocal tariffs went into effect at midnight.

Then, at 1:19 a.m., Trump announced a pause for 90 days — for 70 countries, except China. The markets zoomed.

Soon, the US president was introducing investors who had made billions of dollars in those few hours.

Several US senators have called for an investigation into whether the POTUS manipulated the market to benefit friends, donors and cronies.

Senator Elizabeth Warren announced, “I'm calling for an investigation into whether President Trump manipulated the market to benefit his Wall Street donors — while working people and small businesses paid the price. Did Trump help insiders cash in on his tariff flip-flopping? It sure looks like corruption.”

Another Democrat senator, Adam Schiff announced he is formally opening an investigation to see if members of Donald Trump’s administration illegally profited off the volatile market. "I'm writing to the White House to demand who knew in advance that the president was gonna once again flip flop on tariffs? And are people cashing in?... There is just too much opportunity for people in the White House and the administration to be insider trading."

The US trade representative Jamieson Greer was deposing before a House Committee when news broke that the reciprocal tariffs had been suspended by President Trump for 90 days — for 70 countries, barring China.

It was evidently news to Greer — prompting Democrats to ask who would have advised the President to put a pause on the vaunted ‘reciprocal tariffs’ if Greer himself was not taken into confidence?

Didn’t the POTUS declare just days ago, 7 April, that he was not backing down, that this was ‘medicine’ that was needed to MAGA?

Senator Schiff questioned who may have known in advance about the administration’s plans to lift tariffs — a move that sent markets soaring after a period of uncertainty.

“The question is — between that tweet and Donald Trump's announcement that he was reducing the tariffs on most other nations apart from China —” Schiff said, “the question is, who knew what the President was going to do? And did people around the President trade in stocks knowing the incredible gyration the market was about to go through?”

Schiff referred to the US president’s known involvement in cryptocurrency ventures and alleged participation by his children.

“This is a President who is trading in his own meme coin even as he's President. His kids are trading in their own cryptocurrency,” Schiff said.

“You've got people like Elon Musk who are doing their own conflicted self-dealing in the administration.”

As recently as March, yet another senator, Chris Murphy, had called out the President’s “Trump Coin grift”.

Schiff said he planned to formally write to the White House demanding transparency and accountability on whether any administration officials used non-public information to profit in the stock market.

“In any administration this corrupt, it is more than necessary to ask, were people personally profiting from insider information while people's savings, their retirement accounts were being torched?

“So, we are writing to the White House to demand answers,” he said in his video statement.

He is, of course, aware that the White House is “probably the last place to be forthcoming about this or any other corruption in the administration”, Schiff added.

Schiff called on whistleblowers to come forward, citing past hearings involving justice department officials who resigned or were fired after raising concerns about corruption.

“We have tremendously benefited from courageous people coming forward,” Schiff said. “But at the end of the day, we are going to get to the bottom of this. Whether people were profiting off the pain of the American people.”

President Trump added to the speculation by allegedly introducing in the Oval office businessmen who had ‘made billions during the day’ to his team.

Asked by a news reporter to explain why he had declared the previous day that there would be no pause, only to declare a pause less than 24 hours later, the US president said, “You have to have flexibility. I could say here is a wall and I am going to go through it and you can’t go through the wall. Sometimes you have to be able to go under the wall or around the wall or over the wall.”

It also doesn't help the POTUS’ case at all that his “good time to buy” tweet and the one that followed — “Be cool! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before.” — have since conveniently disappeared off his timeline.