Lawmakers Traded Stocks Heavily as Trump Rolled Out ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs

Buying and selling of stocks spur new push to further restrict lawmakers’ market activities

By Katy Stech Ferek, Jack Gillum, James Benedict and Gunjan Banerji of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"As markets tanked in the wake of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in early April, members of Congress and their families made hundreds of stock trades, shining a spotlight on a controversial practice that some lawmakers have pushed to ban.

From April 2, when Trump launched the sweeping tariffs, to April 8, the day before he paused many of them, more than a dozen House lawmakers and their family members made more than 700 stock trades, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of disclosure filings. Top stocks purchased in that “Liberation Week” period, by the number of trades listed in the disclosures, included MKS Instruments and JPMorgan Chase, while the most sold stocks included Honeywell International and Visa."

"Disclosure rules only require members to report wide ranges of transaction values, not specific amounts or the price. For most members who both bought and sold, that makes it impossible to tell whether their overall trading activity that week made or lost money."

"Lawmakers passed a law in 2012 prohibiting trading on insider information and mandating disclosure"

"the opportunity for insider trading by members of Congress is very real . . . said Rep. Seth Magaziner"

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