Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene apparently had so much confidence in President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy that she snapped up stocks even as markets plunged on fears of a global trade war.
According to the Associated Press, the MAGA congresswoman applied Warren Buffett’s famed investing principle: “To be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”
The market shock came after Trump imposed levies on April 2 targeting more than 180 countries. This resulted in the stock market’s worst single-day performance since the COVID pandemic.
As investors panic-sold tanking stocks, Greene invested in leading firms including Lululemon, Amazon and the computer company Dell. According to the AP analysis, the stocks in question were down by an average of 40 percent when she bought into them late last week.
Lululemon, Amazon, and Dell all rose sharply after Trump announced a 90-day “pause” on most of his tariffs on Wednesday, but have lost ground since then, in line with the market, on fears of a damaging trade war with China.
Asked by the AP whether there were any possible conflicts of interest in her purchases, Greene responded: “I have signed a fiduciary agreement to allow my financial advisor to control my investments. All of my investments are reported with full transparency.”
Markets rebounded dramatically after Trump unexpectedly paused most tariffs on Wednesday afternoon. Just hours before, Trump had urged his followers on his Truth Social platform: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.”
Some Democrats are now calling for a federal probe into whether any White House officials or any of the president’s family members had advanced knowledge of the tariff pause.
“President Trump’s decision to ease most tariffs predictably caused the financial markets to skyrocket after crashing and undergoing wild fluctuations,” Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Adam Schiff of California said in a letter to the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics.
“The President, his family, and his advisors are uniquely positioned to be privy to and take advantage of nonpublic information to inform their investment decisions,” they added.
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for an investigation into “insider trading” in Congress as she said on X that “any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now.”
“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.”
The president meanwhile said he implemented the temporary pause because people “were getting yippy.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast: “It is the responsibility of the president of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering.”
He added that, in the past, Democrats “railed against China’s cheating for decades.”
“And now they’re playing partisan games instead of celebrating President Trump’s decisive action yesterday to finally corner China,” Desai said.
