Congress given May 15 deadline as Donald Trump 'insider trading' allegations emerge

By Charlie Bradley, Assistant Features Editor, Katie Elliott, Senior Personal Finance Reporter based in London

Trump (Image: Getty)

Congress has been given a disclosure deadline of May 15 as US President Donald Trump is accused of insider trading amidst his tariff announcements. A US senator has called for transparency from lawmakers regarding recent stock trades. In a video post on X on Thursday, US senator Adam Schiff said: "Is Donald Trump's inner circle illegally profiting off of these huge swings in the stock market by insider trading?"

He continued: “We're writing to the White House to demand answers. This is a president who is trading his own meme coin; his kids are trading their own cryptocurrency. It is more than necessary to ask whether people were personally profiting from insider information when people's savings and retirement accounts were being torched?”

In an additional post, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X: "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. We’re about to learn a few things. It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress."

It comes after President Trump's shifting tariff policy triggered market turmoil this week. Global stocks tumbled on Wednesday as higher tariffs took effect for more than 60 countries - including a staggering 104% levy on Chinese imports. By that evening, Trump announced a 90-day pause on the new tariffs for all countries except China, sparking a sharp rebound in the markets.

Announcing the pause, Mr Trump told reporters that "people were getting yippy" in an apparent acknowledgement of the market turmoil in recent days.