Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats accuse Trump admin officials of insider trading after stock market tariff surge

Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wondered aloud if some Trump administration officials might have taken advantage of the president's mercurial tariff announcements to increase their personal wealth.

The stock market had a historic crash after President Donald Trump issued massive across-the-board tariffs, but it quickly recovered much of the losses after he paused most of the tariffs on Wednesday. Democrats pounced on the opportunity to accuse Republicans of insider trading.

'We will hold extreme MAGA Republicans accountable for any corruption, insider trading, and stock market manipulation.'

"Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now," wrote Ocasio-Cortez on social media. "I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor. Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things. It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress."

Others were less vague about the accusations. They zeroed in on the president saying on social media that people should buy stocks just hours before he made the pause announcement.

"An insider trading scandal is brewing," wrote Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. "Trump's 9:30am tweet makes it clear he was eager for his people to make money off the private info only he knew. So who knew ahead of time and how much money did they make?"

"Let me be clear. We will hold extreme MAGA Republicans accountable for any corruption, insider trading, and stock market manipulation," added House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) went so far as to officially call for an investigation.

"I’m demanding answers from the White House and Office of Government Ethics about whether anyone in the Trump family or administration profited off of this tariff chaos through insider trading," said Schiff.

Although the stock market recovered much of the loss, on Thursday another sell-off dropped the Dow Jones average by 1,700 points, the Nasdaq composite by 6%, and the S&P 500 by 5%.

In September, Trump called for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to be investigated for insider trading after reports of very fortuitous and beneficial stock trades made by the former House speaker.

Last year, BlazeTV released a documentary about shady stock-trading moves by members of Congress. You can view that Blaze Originals documentary, "Bought and Paid For: How Politicians Get Filthy Rich," below:

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