- Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed a ban on members of Congress trading stocks.
- The former president included his endorsement of a ban in a list of "drain the swamp" proposals.
- Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support a ban, but progress has stalled in Congress.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday added his name to the growing bipartisan list of figures who want to bar members of Congress from trading stocks.
"We want a ban on members of Congress getting rich by trading stocks on insider information," Trump said during a speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where he formally announced his 2024 presidential run.
Trump has previously attacked the idea of lawmakers trading stocks, but his comments Tuesday appeared to be his most fulsome endorsement of a ban thus far. President Joe Biden, in contrast, has been mostly mum on the subject.
Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project has documented how dozens of members of Congress and at least 182 senior congressional staffers have violated federal conflicts-of-interest and disclosure laws regarding stock trades. In particular, the series documented how stock trades could pose difficult conflicts of interest as lawmakers serving on specific policy committees deal with shares of companies that come under their jurisdiction.
Trump on Tuesday night included the ban among numerous policy ideas — some rehashed from his stillborn ethics platform from 2016 — under the umbrella of "draining the swamp."
The former president later reiterated his support for a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress — an idea that enjoys popular appeal but little support on Capitol Hill — and a lifetime ban on lobbying by former lawmakers and Cabinet members.
Plan for stock ban?
After months of internal debate, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a top House Democrat, introduced a framework in late September that would bar lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children — as well as other top government officials — from trading individual stocks and cryptocurrency.
Lofgren's outline has been panned by good-government advocates, though, who believe its provisions for blind trusts are too permissive. Advocates are also worried that including Supreme Court justices in the ban is effectively a "poison pill" that will cause otherwise amenable Republicans to sour on it.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was initially reluctant about any ban on stock trading, but she began to change her position as more junior lawmakers such as Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia refused to back away from the cause.
Pelosi's husband, Paul, traded tens of millions of dollars in stock and stock options last year. The speaker's office has said that he makes the trades on his own without input from Nancy Pelosi. Paul Pelosi is recovering from injuries he sustained in October after he was violently attacked in the couple's San Francisco home by an assailant who apparently sought to harm the speaker, who was out of town at the time.
The movement to ban stock trading has garnered both bicameral and bipartisan support, with several competing proposals floated during the past year. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, for two, put forth a proposal. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who is thought to harbor future Republican presidential ambitions, has also introduced legislation. A stock-trade ban for members of Congress is widely popular with voters.
House leaders have pledged to move forward on stock-ban legislation this month, but it's not immediately clear where negotiations for passing a stock ban stand. While the issue has bipartisan support, lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol have numerous issues to deal with during the so-called lame-duck session.
