Political Memes

If Trump knew he was going to do that and told people so that they could buy/sell in a manner that was financially advantageous, that is most certainly insider trading. It may not be what is the most common form or the most commonly prosecuted form, but it is trading based on information others do not have. Having it be protected information may add a layer when it comes to prosecution. I would offer that whether tariffs will be levied or paused is protected information, as well.

Edit: It's also market manipulation, but they used market manipulation to conduct insider trading.

Given the unpredictability of Trump's recent behavior (particularly surrounding the tariffs and whether or not they'll go into effect or be delayed) absolutely makes that info privileged imo.

At the very least, there is a legitimate argument for it.

as others have said. it's both. you don't have to be an employee, you just need advance access to privileged knowledge that no one else has. an unfair advantage granted to you by proximity to the decision makers who cause the market to react.

if a Senator is on a committee that meets behind closed doors to vote on whether a bill will move forward or die in committee, and he tells his wife to go buy/sell certain stocks (before the vote is publicly announced)... pretty sure most people would call that insider trading.

whether Musktrump alerted their own wealth manager or their private equity and oligarch buddies about the exact timing of certain key decisions which would impact stock valuations or securities, is a matter to be investigated. but it seems pretty fucking likely.

besides, it's irrelevant what the law defines at this point... no one in the administration will face an inquiry or be held accountable for this.

Insider trading doesn't exclusively apply to employees of a corporation; if it did, execs would be giving tips about major decisions to their close friends.

The point of regulating this is that trading based on exclusive information that the rest of the market can't possibly have is unfair and undermines trust in the market. Trump (allegedly) tipped off his allies about a future market-manipulating decision before it was announced to the rest of the market. They made trading decisions based on that exclusive information, and profited off of other traders' lack of information.

Thanks for the short and sweet answer.

My memory is fuzzy if the event, but the reason for her jail time was because she lied about it, right?

... Isn't that almost exactly the same thing Vivek Ramiswamy did?

Started or bought a biotech firm, literally got his own mother to conduct a 'study', concluding a drug in development worked and had potential, when in fact everyone knew it was bullshit, then he sold all his shares before larger studies concluded more publically that the drug was indeed bullshit?

Holy shit. That seems a bit harsh.

Thank you.