On Wednesday, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff asked Congress to open an investigation into whether President Donald Trump committed insider trading or manipulated the market at the same time he suddenly suspended some tariffs, a move that sent stock prices skyrocketing. “I’m going to do my best to find out,” Schiff told TIME. The senator’s comments came just after the S&P 500 rose more than 9 percent Wednesday afternoon after Trump announced the pause regarding tariffs. “This is a great time to buy!!!” the president himself later wrote on Truth Social, minutes after the market opened.
Schiff is the first senator to openly call for a congressional investigation into potential insider trading by the administration. Such investigations would fall under the purview of powerful committees, such as the Senate Judiciary Committee or the Finance Committee, both of which are chaired by Republicans.
On Wednesday morning, Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada, was one of the first to question whether the tariff suspension was related to market manipulation, as the news broke in the midst of a heated hearing with Trump’s trade representative Jamieson Greer. “This is not a game. This is real life,” Horsford said.
The market’s response to Trump’s decision was swift. Stocks jumped more than 7 percent within minutes of the announcement, closing up more than 9 percent.
“I think what American businesspeople need is some certainty, some predictability,” Schiff said, “They’re getting anything but. Americans who have seen their retirement savings wiped out need to be made whole.”
The Democratic senator has long been one of Trump’s fiercest critics. He was also the lead prosecutor in the first impeachment trial against the MAGA leader. Now, Schiff suspects that the president, by suspending the tariffs, is trying to favor himself or his allies, given also the timing of the announcement.
For his part, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said that the decision in question was intended to kick off targeted negotiations. The only certainty we can provide is that the U.S. is going to negotiate in good faith,” he said, adding that such a move also helped put “China in a bad position.”
