I first learned of this last night on a NewsNation telecast, followed today by an article in the Wall Street Journal, so I’m not sure who broke it first. Anyway, people are enriching themselves with investments and gambles made just prior to announcements by President Trump.
One example — a big one: Two minutes before Trump announced he was working on a peace deal with Iran, some $700 million in oil futures changed hands, following days and weeks of inactivity. Bottom line: someone or someones (plural) earned a fortune in making investments based on a Trump decision 120 seconds prior to his actual announcement on March 23.
Something similar happened on April 9 only minutes before Trump’s 1 p.m. announcement of a 90-day pause in “Liberation Day” tariffs. This one is a bit trickier to explain, but more than one person made short calls on a fund tracking the S&P stock index, which would pay off if the index rose — which it did following the president’s announcement.
One hour before Trump ordered the invasion of Venezuela to capture Nicolas Maduro, someone made a $34,000 bet that the dictator wouldn’t remain in power past the end of January. The bettor walked away with $400,000 in winnings.
These last-minute and last-hour investments (and wagers) have people wondering if someone with advance knowledge of Trump’s decisions — perhaps a family member or someone close to the president — is acting on this insider knowledge to enrich themselves. Still and all, insider trading is indeed a felony.
The record for suspicious wealth accumulation by public officials, however, belongs in the short term to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. and in the long run to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. Omar racked up $30 million in wealth in a single year after taking office, and Pelosi’s haul from insider knowledge (which she vehemently denies) lies somewhere in the hundreds of millions.
