Sen. Elizabeth Warren pressed Treasury Chief Scott Bessent about President Trump’s reported stock trades during a heated Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. Warren highlighted trades in companies affected by administration policy and said the president made thousands of transactions totaling more than $250 million in 2026. Bessent said an outside manager handled the trades and urged Congress to reform its own rules first. Warren called for stronger anti‑corruption and conflict‑of‑interest rules that apply to both the White House and lawmakers.
Warren Confronts Treasury Chief Over Trump’s Controversial Stock Trades
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D‑Mass.) pressed Treasury Chief Scott Bessent over a series of President Donald Trump’s stock transactions during a tense Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Warren opened by noting one point of agreement: both she and Bessent support a ban on stock trading by members of Congress. She then focused on trades tied to companies affected by administration policy, citing examples such as Nvidia and Lockheed Martin.
Warren said the president’s trading records show thousands of transactions that reportedly totaled more than a quarter of a billion dollars in 2026, and asked whether Bessent agreed those trades represented a conflict of interest.
Warren: “Do you also agree that it’s a conflict of interest for President Trump to trade stocks?”
Bessent replied that President Trump was not personally executing a high-frequency trading strategy and that an outside manager appears to have handled the trades. He urged Congress to reform its own rules before pressing the administrative branch to act.
Bessent: “Couple of things, Senator. One, President Trump is not sitting in the Oval Office engaging in a high-frequency trading strategy. Clearly, he had an outside manager who was doing that. And so I think it’s incumbent upon both houses of Congress to get their house in order before you move to the administrative branch.”
Warren pressed back:
Warren: “Before? You think it’s OK for the president to do this?”
The exchange grew increasingly testy as Bessent repeatedly urged lawmakers to "get your own house in order," while Warren insisted the White House should be held to the same standard. At one point Bessent said, "Please lead by example," to which Warren responded she wanted to see the president lead by example.
Warren concluded by calling for stronger anti‑corruption and conflict‑of‑interest rules that apply to everyone in Washington — including the president and members of Congress — and accused Trump of enriching himself by exploiting his position rather than serving the public.
The hearing and the exchange were captured on video and aired on C‑SPAN.
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