By: Olivier Acuña Barba •
Published: 12 Apr 2025 • 21:00
• 2 minutes read
Donald Trump is accused by Democrats of market manipulation and Insider Trading – Press Office image
Stock markets around the world have responded in both directions every time Donald Trump activated, reversed or paused tariffs. But whether Trump did it on purpose or through insider trading, is another story.
He wrote, “THIS Is A Great Time To Buy !!!” The initial DJT is the company ticker of his social media platform. He posted this on Wednesday. Those stocks rose 22 per cent.
Trump’s Truth Social posting arguably compelled people to buy stocks and traders to take long stock positions, raising questions about whether his tariff-of and on strategy was aimed at intentionally manipulating the markets.
Today, a group Senate Democrats requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission investigate the President and others. They accused them of possible violations, such as insider trading and manipulating the stock market.
Democrats urged the SEC to investigate whether the President, members of his Cabinet, other donors, insiders or Administration officials, engaged in insider trade, market manipulation or any other securities laws violations when President Trump announced on April 9, 2025 that it was “a GREAT TIME TO BUILD” stock. letter The SEC.
Tariffs that are erroneous and reckless
In a three-page document signed by Elizabeth Warren (with Charles Schumer), Adam Schiff (with Mark Kelly), Ruben Galego, and Ron Wyden they accuse Trump as well of having announced “a series erratic and reckless tariffs leading to significant turmoil in the market.”
As a result, they noted that the US financial markets had lost more than $5 trillion over two days. According to Siblis ResearchThe US stock market cap was $52 trillion on April 4. This represents a loss of $10 trillion. According to Companies Market Cap the current total market cap is $54.7 trillion.
Financial data confirms several anonymous options traders had bets of millions of dollar on the recovery of the US market minutes before Trump posted a social media message pausing tariffs, sending the US stock exchange soaring. Their bets were rewarded handsomely.
Henry Schwartz is vice president of market intelligence at Cboe Global Markets. told Reuters.
The aforementioned is a video Trump’s comments about his Oval Office are heard in a video posted on X. According to a New York Magazine article from April 4, X postTrump posted a video that’s no longer available on Truth Social where he claims he is “purposely crash the market.”
Hakeem Jeffersonries, US House of Representatives Democratic leader, told journalists in Congress that “his party will aggressively demand answers and transparent, especially as it relates stock purchase decisions which may have occurred during the last few weeks.”
‘No way’ Trump is guilty
Massive daily market swings have boosted options volume to a record high – some 85 million contracts changed hands on Wednesday – making it extra hard to sift through the volume for suspicious trades, Reuters noted.
Steve Sosnick is the chief strategist of Interactive Brokers. He said: “Bottom Line, Volumes and Volatility were Huge, so I am unable to tell if any of these well-timed trades were normal, fortuitous transactions or something nefarious.”
‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort told Sky News there’s “no way” Donald Trump is guilty of insider trading or market manipulation.
“If he hadn’t said anything and told five of his best friends, ‘I’m gonna ease this tariff situation – you should be buying’, that would be illegal,” said Belfort, who spent years behind bars, convicted of insider trading.