An aide to President Donald Trump sold up to $5 million worth of Trump Media stock the day before the “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced.
Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff, sold stock worth between $1 million and $5 million on April 1, according to financial disclosure reports first obtained by USA Today. Trump Media is the parent company of Trump’s TruthSocial social media platform.
Scavino sold the day before the president officially announced reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners. The announcement caused the markets to plummet and prompted Trump to put a 90-day pause on the tariffs on April 9, by which point the markets had slumped 12 percent. Stocks for Trump Media fell by about 11 percent.
If government officials buy or sell stock worth more than $1,000, they are required to file disclosure reports. Scavino signed the financial disclosure report on May 20 after he received a 90-day filing extension, documents show.
Sergio Gor, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, also sold Trump Media stock worth between $15,001 and $50,000 on March 27, a few days before the tariff announcement.
The White House said the sales had “nothing to do with the tariff announcement” when approached by The Independent.
“White House senior staff, including Deputy Chief of Staff Scavino and PPO Director Gor, fully comply with the executive branch ethics rules, attending required ethics briefings and complying with conflict of interest and financial reporting obligations,” spokesperson Taylor Rogers said.
“Gor’s transaction had nothing to do with the tariff announcement,” Rogers added. “In fact, he even took a loss from selling his stocks, which debunks any false narrative peddled by the fake news.”
Gor also signed his disclosure report on May 20 after receiving a 90-day filing extension.
Officials in the federal government and Congress are prohibited from trading stock based on nonpublic information, according to the 2023 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.
It’s possible that trades by government officials prompted by information not available to the public could cross the bounds of the law. However, such cases against officials are complicated, and judges have recently narrowed the scope of what is unlawful insider trading, ProPublica noted.
In the case of Trump’s aides, watchdogs said the timing of the sale raises ethical questions.
“White House officials are supposed to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, but owning or selling shares in the sitting president's media company does just the opposite,” Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility, told USA Today.
“These disclosures show that Trump's senior advisers' investments are tied into their boss' media company,” Brown continued. “While that may not be prohibited by law by itself, when coupled with the extent to which Trump's media outlets are being integrated into the Administration's agenda, it begs the question of whether this is another mechanism for the President and his advisers to financially benefit personally from their government agenda.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was obligated to sell her stake within 90-days of being confirmed by the Senate, sold millions of dollars in shares in Trump Media the same day the tariffs were announced.
According to Bondi’s disclosure forms, she sold between $1 million and $5 million of shares in Trump Media on April 2, but the forms didn’t state if the sales took place before or after the markets closed.
