Republican Senator Josh Hawley’s proposed bill banning stock trading by legislators has Republicans running around like chickens with their heads cut off—including the president. But Hawley is keeping his cool.
On Wednesday, Trump slammed Hawley on Truth Social, accusing him of playing into the hands of the Democrats with his legislation, which would prohibit members of Congress, the president, and the vice president from trading stocks.
“I don’t think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the ‘whims’ of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!” Trump wrote.
But Hawley was unbothered by the president’s digs, and laughed them off, according to The Independent. In fact, Hawley says that Trump is a supporter of the bill, reaffirming what the president said to reporters hours before his Truth Social rant.
“He and I had a nice visit this afternoon and he reiterated that he is in favor of a stock ban for members of Congress [and ] that he wants to see it passed,” Hawley said. “He thinks we need to move full speed ahead.”
The bill, which was originally called the PELOSI Act in a mocking tribute to the accusations of insider trading against Representative Nancy Pelosi’s husband, made it through the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday, in an 8–7 vote, with Hawley as the sole Republican to support the act.
Though the bill does ban the president and vice president from trading or owning stocks, it includes a notable carve-out for Trump: That prohibition will only kick in for future administrations.
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