Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren defended her calls for the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate President Donald Trump over accusations of market manipulation and insider trading, saying such an investigation is “entirely appropriate.”
“That’s what investigations are for. And it’s entirely appropriate to have an investigation to make sure that Donald Trump, Donald Trump’s family, Donald Trump’s inner circle didn’t get advance information and trade on that information,” Warren told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday during an appearance on “State of the Union.”
Warren, alongside a handful of other Senate Democrats such as Oregon’s Ron Wyden and New York’s Chuck Schumer, wrote a letter to the SEC chief on Friday calling for an investigation into alleged market manipulation following Trump’s reciprocal tariff announcement and subsequent 90-day pause to the customized tariffs he leveled on foreign nations.
“We urge the SEC to investigate whether the tariff announcements, which caused the market crash and subsequent partial recovery, enriched administration insiders and friends at the expense of the American public and whether any insiders, including the President’s family, had prior knowledge of the tariff pause that they abused to make stock trades ahead of the President’s announcement,” the Senate Democrats wrote in their letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins on Friday.
President Donald Trump and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Getty Images)
The White House slammed calls for investigations into market manipulation last week in comments provided to Fox Digital that accused Democrats of playing “partisan games.”
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“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,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in comment to Fox Digital when asked about Democrats claiming Trump manipulated the market.
A New York Times columnist grilled the Democratic Party for not mounting an aggressive enough attack on President Trump’s tariff policy. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
When asked on Sunday if Warren had actually seen evidence of alleged insider trading, she responded: “Well, there are people who have looked at what happened to purchases and to calls just before he made that announcement that caused the stock market to skyrocket.”
She continued on Sunday that members of Congress should also be subject to a rule barring them from trading individual stocks.
“This is how the stock market works in order to make sure on a consistent basis that nobody’s trading on inside information. And, by the way, Jake, the same thing should apply to Congress. And that is, we should have a rule that no one in Congress can… trade in any individual stocks, no senator, no representative. I have had that bill for a long time. It’s got a lot of support,” she told Tapper.
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Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., wrote a letter on Thursday to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, as well as Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, also calling for an investigation into potential insider trading.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren asks questions during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on March 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Trump, ahead of pausing the reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday of last week, posted to Truth Social, “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” and “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.” The president had previously said he would not pause tariffs but was open to negotiating with other nations.
Trump paused only the higher, customized tariffs he placed on nations that historically installed trade barriers on U.S. goods, with nations across the world instead facing a lower 10% tariff on goods, as the Trump administration and world leaders hash out negotiations for the reciprocal tariffs.
China, however, was not part of the tariff pause and was instead hit with a higher 125% tariff after retaliating with its own additional tariffs against the U.S.
Warren continued in her remarks that tariffs can “be an important tool in the toolbox when used in targeted ways,” but accused Trump of spreading “chaos” through the implementations of his tariff plans.
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“Right now, what we have got is chaos and corruption. Donald Trump has imposed a tariff on everyone everywhere, on all products. That’s the 10% tariff. Of course, it was much higher earlier in the week, and now in this trade war with China that basically tries to shut down all trade,” she said.
