Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the hot seat Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s unprecedented stock trading, demanding to know whether the White House should face the same scrutiny Bessent himself once said Congress deserved.
The exchange, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Trump’s FY2027 budget, turned combative fast.
Warren opened by turning Bessent’s own words against him — reminding the former hedge fund manager that he had previously said congressional traders posted returns so strong that “every hedge fund would be jealous of them,” and that “if any private citizen traded that way, the SEC would be knocking on their door.”
Trump’s financial disclosures show he made more than 3,400 stock trades worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars in just the first three months of 2026 — roughly half of what all 535 members of Congress traded last year combined, she said.
Bessent insisted Congress should clean up its own act first.
“I think it’s incumbent upon both houses of Congress to get their house in order before you move to the administrative branch,” he said.
Warren didn’t budge. “How about we get the White House in order at the same time?”
When Warren pressed Bessent on whether Trump’s January 6 purchase of up to $1 million in Nvidia stock — one week before his administration loosened export controls allowing Nvidia to sell chips to China — warranted an SEC investigation, Bessent dodged again. “Get your house in order, Senator.”
Warren fired back: “I don’t trade in individual stocks. I don’t own any individual stocks. My house is in order.”
She also flagged Trump’s purchases of what she described as tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of Robinhood and BNY stock before his Treasury Department named both companies as partners in the new Trump Accounts program. Both stocks rose after the announcement.
Bessent wouldn’t engage on whether trades made on inside information would be illegal or worth investigating.
Warren closed with a broadside. “Instead of draining the swamp, what Donald Trump is doing is he is enriching himself by taking advantage of his position,” she said. “That is not public service.”
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