Donald Trump has reportedly lashed out at Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) over a bill that would ban stock trading by lawmakers — after being led to believe, incorrectly, that it would force him to sell his prized Mar-a-Lago resort.
Hawley, one of Trump’s most reliable Senate allies, has been downplaying the dust-up after Trump publicly questioned why a “second-tier senator” would push a bill that “targets” him. The Missouri Republican now blames fellow GOP senators for feeding Trump misinformation.
“What he said is that he had a number of people call him and say the bill had been changed at the last minute to force him to sell Mar-a-Lago and divest all his assets, which is, of course, totally false,” Hawley told Business Insider. “When we walked through the text of the bill, he was like, ‘Oh, OK.’”
The bill — which would bar members of Congress, presidents, and vice presidents from trading individual stocks — advanced out of the Senate Homeland Security Committee this week with support from all Democrats plus Hawley. Originally nicknamed the PELOSI Act after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the legislation has long been aimed at curbing insider-trading suspicions on Capitol Hill.
Trump responded with a sharp post on Truth Social:
“I wonder why Hawley would pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with — He is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats. I don’t think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the ‘whims’ of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!”
Hawley insists Trump actually supports the broader goal of banning stock trading for public officials and told him after their conversation, “You’re totally exonerated, Josh.”
Some Republicans, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), oppose the bill because it covers the executive branch as well as Congress.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “conceptually” supports banning members of Congress from trading stocks, but stopped short of confirming whether he backs extending the ban to presidents and vice presidents.
Pelosi, for her part, dismissed Trump’s repeated accusations that she benefits from insider trading.
“That’s ridiculous,” she told CNN. “I very much support stopping members of Congress from trading. I’m not into it. My husband is, but it has nothing to do with insider information. The president has his own exposure, so he’s always projecting.”