President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that he reversed course on tariffs because investors were "yippy."AP Pool
Leading Democrats are raising questions about whether insiders profited from the market swing that followed President Donald Trump’s sudden reversal on sweeping tariffs he recently announced on imports from foreign countries.
“Who in the administration knew about Trump’s latest tariff flip flop ahead of time?” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked in a Bluesky post Wednesday. “Did anyone buy or sell stocks, and profit at the public’s expense? I’m writing to the White House—the public has a right to know.”
On Wednesday, just a week after imposing massive tariffs, or taxes paid by purchasers of foreign goods, in what he called “Liberation Day,” Trump—who for days had claimed he would not budge—abruptly changed course in the face of stock market plunges, warnings of a global recession and a sell-off of US Treasury bonds.
“I was watching the bond market,” Trump told reporters. “The bond market is very tricky.” Investors, he added, “were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.”
In a confusingly written Truth Social post, Trump on Wednesday afternoon announced a 125 percent tariff on Chinese imports, along with a “90 day PAUSE” on other reciprocal tariffs he announced last week—along with a lowered, though still substantial, reciprocal rate of 10 percent. Though Trump might yet reimpose the tariffs, the announcement, widely seen as the president backing down on an economically disastrous policy, sent markets soaring.
Suspicion about the reversal stemmed in part from earlier posts by Trump. “BE COOL!” he wrote Wednesday morning on Truth Social. “Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” Minutes later, he added: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”
DJT is the stock symbol for Trump Media & Technology Group—the parent company of Truth Social—which saw its stock price jump in the moments after Trump’s post. Its price continued to rise throughout the day, spiking around the time word came that Trump had folded on at least some of his tariff threats. The company’s share price had been punished over the last week—following a long-term trend for the stock—shaving as much as $500 million off Trump’s net worth, much of which came back today.
If investors took Trump’s post as a signal to buy—either his own stock or the stock market more broadly—they would have done extremely well, achieving returns of more than 20 percent.
Schiff and other Democrats noted Wednesday that the market swings created opportunities for corruption.
“These constant gyrations in policy provide dangerous opportunities for insider trading,” Schiff wrote.
“Was it corruption in plain sight?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked in a floor speech on Wednesday. “We need an independent investigation into market manipulation because Americans need to know whether President Trump or anyone in his administration manipulated the market to benefit their donors, all while they are working for the American people, and while small businesses and those working families are paying the price.”
The reversal left Republicans who had spent days defending Trump’s tariffs scrambling to offer new justifications for his actions.
On Capitol Hill, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was forced to defend a new policy—one he appeared to have had no role in crafting—before irate members of the House Ways and Means committee.
“So the trade representative hasn’t spoken to the President of the United States about a global reordering of trade, but yet he announced it on a tweet?” Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) asked Greer. “WTF! Who’s in charge and what do you know about those details? It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you and paused the tariffs, the taxes on the American people. There is no strategy.”
“If it’s not market manipulation, what is it?” Horsford asked. “Who’s benefiting? What billionaire just got richer?”
