It’s not insider trading if it’s posted on social media!
After President Donald Trump paused planned tariffs on several countries for 90 days, stock markets soared, with the Nasdaq seeing its biggest single-day gain since 2008.
Hours earlier, Trump had posted optimistic messages on Truth Social, including: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” Critics and ethics experts questioned whether the posts could be interpreted as an attempt to influence markets or as potential insider trading.
NBC reported that, although there is no evidence Trump or his advisers acted on nonpublic information, the timing of the posts and subsequent tariff pause led to scrutiny from Democrats like Senators Richard Blumenthal and Adam Schiff.
They called for investigations into whether anyone in the administration may have used advance knowledge for financial gain.
The White House defended Trump’s remarks as attempts to calm the market amid media-driven panic. Nonetheless, ethics experts argue the president should avoid making comments that could appear to be financial advice or market manipulation.
Insider trading occurs when someone buys or sells stocks or other securities based on material, nonpublic information—information that could significantly affect a company’s stock price but has not yet been released to the public.
This practice is illegal when the individual trading has a duty to keep the information confidential, such as a corporate insider, government official, or anyone who received the information through a breach of trust.
The goal of insider trading laws is to ensure a fair and level playing field in financial markets, where no one has an unfair advantage due to privileged access to information.
Encouraging the general public—not a secret or select group—to trade based on publicly available information does not meet the definition of insider trading.
By contrast, the Nancy Pelosi incident, if true, matches the definition of insider trading.
In 2024, Pelosi’s husband was accused of selling Visa stock shortly before the Justice Department announced an antitrust lawsuit against the company—raising suspicions that he may have acted on nonpublic, privileged information.
Critics alleged that, through his proximity to the Speaker of the House, he may have had early awareness of impending regulatory action that could negatively impact Visa’s stock value, making it beneficial to sell ahead of the announcement.
If true, that would qualify as insider trading because it involves profiting from confidential government knowledge not available to the public.
In the case of Trump, the tariffs had been widely publicized and did not constitute nonpublic information.
Likewise, Trump’s statement—“this is a great time to buy”—was made publicly on social media, available for anyone to act upon.
Rather than signaling insider knowledge, he appeared to be encouraging the public not to panic, but to see the market dip as an opportunity to invest while prices were low. It was a message of confidence and arguably sound financial advice—not a criminal act.
Critics might argue that the potential insider element is Trump’s knowledge—before the public—that he planned to pause the tariffs, a move that ultimately sent stocks soaring.
While that’s true, it’s also reasonable to assume that markets were due for a rebound and that buying the dip is a well-known strategy used by seasoned investors.
While mainstream media was sounding the alarm and declaring that markets were tanking, more level-headed observers saw the sell-off as a temporary correction triggered by fear over the tariff announcement.
In reality, the tariffs hadn’t yet taken effect, no businesses had suffered tangible harm, and the underlying fundamentals of the U.S. and global economies remained unchanged.
The drop in prices was largely driven by negative sentiment—much of it fueled by Democrats and media figures claiming Trump had wrecked the economy or destroyed people’s life savings.
But while some were panic-selling, smart financial advisors were using phrases like “buying opportunity” and “everything’s on sale.”
That’s exactly what Trump was doing: recognizing, accurately, that lower prices made it a good time to buy. And this would have been true whether he paused the tariffs that day or months later.
The public reaction also suggests many hadn’t read the actual tariff order, which clearly states that the tariffs were intended as a negotiating tool to bring countries to the table and would be lifted once better trade terms were secured.
The order itself makes clear that the tariffs were not permanent—so buying during a dip wasn’t manipulation, it was just smart strategy.
And finally, since there is no evidence that Trump or his team traded stocks, claims of insider trading are dead in the water.
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