Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed strong dissatisfaction on Monday night upon learning that Marjorie Taylor Greene had purchased large quantities of stock shortly before Donald Trump decided to pause the tariffs.
Previously, Ocasio-Cortez had urged for an inquiry to be conducted regarding potential insider trading among members of Congress between the initiation and the suspension of the tariffs.
Recent reports reveal that Greene invested between $21,000 and $315,000 in stock during those days, with the latter amount aligning with the president’s social media post stating, ‘THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!’
Ocasio-Cortez, speaking at one of her and Bernie Sanders’ co-headlining ‘Fight Oligarchy’ events in Idaho, asked Greene the one question on everyone’s mind.
‘We saw Marjorie Taylor Greene buy that dip. How much did you make? How much did you make off of people’s despair? How much did you make off of that panic? How much did you make off of that suffering? No more. We can’t accept it.’
She wasn’t the only high profile Democrat to slam the MAGA ally Greene, as Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took a shot at her in an interview with Jen Psaki.
He said that ‘so many of these people are crooks, liars and frauds’ and referred to Greene as ‘Exhibit A.’
‘We are seeing corruption unfold before us in real time,’ he added, saying that he will seek to make it illegal for sitting members of Congress to trade stock.
In the two days following Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff announcement, Wall Street had its worst wipeout in history – losing $6.6 trillion off the value of US stocks.
When markets closed in New York at 4pm on Friday, April 4,, the S&P 500 was down 5.97 percent. The Nasdaq plummeted 5.82 percent and The Dow Jones 5.5 percent.
That followed the prior day’s losses for the three major US indices, which ranged between 4 percent and 6 percent. The S&P 500 had its worst since March 2020, when the pandemic crashed the economy.
Five days later, on April 9, Trump proclaimed on his Truth Social network: ‘THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!’
The president announced a little after 1 p.m. that day that while he would hike tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 percent, the rest of the world’s tariffs would only be 10 percent and there would be a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs he unveiled a week ago in the Rose Garden.
That announcement immediately had the stock market ticking back up, making its third biggest gains since World War II, according to CNBC.
The Nasdaq surged more than 12 percent and the S&P 500 by 10 percent, their biggest jumps since October 2008 when there was a relief rally during the Great Recession.
The White House tried to spin the move as the ‘strategy all along,’ according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt scolded reporters for doubting Trump’s bargaining skills.
After the pause announcement was made, stocks soared 9.5 percent and the Dow closed up nearly 3,000 points on Wednesday,
Those who purchased stocks in the hours between his post and the tariff U-turn made a lot of money.
That same day, Ocasio-Cortez used her platform on X to give voice to what many on social media were also saying.
‘Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now,’ the progressive Democrat posted.
‘I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor. Disclosure deadline is May 15th,’ she continued.
‘We’re about to learn a few things. It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress,’ she wrote.
Members of Congress have 45 days to disclose stock trades, meaning May 15 will be the deadline for any trades around the time of the tariff announcement.
On Monday, Greene admitted to making the massive disclosures, as members of Congress are required to do.
The day before the pause, Greene also got rid of between $50,000 and $100,000 in U.S. Treasury bills, The New York Times reported.
The disclosures come after it was revealed earlier this month that Greene made hefty trades days before Trump’s tariffs announcement tanked the stock market.
Greene has yet to publicly comment but denied any impropriety in a statement released after investigations into her stock trading last week, saying that she pays someone to handle all of her investments.
‘I have signed a fiduciary agreement to allow my financial advisor to control my investments. All of my investments are reported with full transparency. I refuse to hide my stock trades in a blind trust like many others do.’
A spokesperson for Greene told Newsweek that any investigation into any wrongdoings would be ‘utterly absurd.’
Greene’s stock buys included Apple – up five percent since the tariffs were paused – Devon Energy Corporation and Merck & Company pharmaceuticals.
Other recent investments include Palantir – up 19 percent since the pause – and Advanced Micro Devices – up 21 percent.
The MAGA proponent made 15 investments between March 16 and March 24. Her three largest moves were putting hundreds of thousands of dollars towards US Treasury Bills, also know as T-Bills.
T-Bills are short-term debt obligations that are considered low risk, so they may bring in lower returns than other kinds of investments.
But the low-risk nature of T-Bills means investors are highly unlikely to experience losses on their money, making them a safer bet than stocks.
On March 16, March 19 and March 24, Greene spent $100,000 to $250,000 per transaction on T-Bills, according to Capitol Trades, a platform devoted to sharing politician trading data.
The Trump ally invested between $300,000 and $750,000 in Treasuries, according to the filings.
These massive purchases were sprinkled among multiple smaller ones that spanned from $1,000 to $5,000 in companies including Apple Inc, AbbVie Inc and Costco Wholesale Group.
Greene’s initial stock moves came in the days leading up to Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ declaration on April 2.
Since the initial announcement, the stock market had been in a nosedive – and had the tariffs gone into full effect the cost of groceries, alcohol, clothing, shoes and electronics was expected to rise.
There were already fears that the tariff debacle could do real harm to the GOP in the midterms.
Trump acknowledged the unease as he answered reporters’ questions from the South Lawn as he entertained NASCAR champions Wednesday afternoon.
‘Well I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line, they were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid, unlike these champions,’ Trump replied. ‘Because we have a big job to do.’
Asked if he reversed course due to the bond market, Trump said it was ‘tricky’ but it looked ‘beautiful’ now.
‘But, yeah, I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy,’ he said.
Despite that fact that none of his more punishing reciprocal tariffs had taken effect, he still boasted that Liberation Day was a success.
‘The big move wasn’t what I did today, the big move was what I did on Liberation Day. We had Liberation Day in America. We’re liberated from all of the horrible deals that were made, all the horrible trade deals that were made,’ Trump insisted.
Members of Congress must report stock trades within 30 days of making them but they are allowed to give a wide range of dollar amounts rather than provide exact numbers.
