Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized President Donald Trump’s trading activity, arguing that the volume and timing of transactions in his investment portfolio raised questions about potential conflicts of interest and reinforced the need to ban government officials from trading on the stock market.
In a video posted on X on Wednesday, Warren noted trades involving Eli Lilly, Dell Technologies, and Micron Technology, alleging that Trump purchased shares before publicly praising the companies and their products.
“It looks like an absurd level of corruption. Congress needs to step in and put a stop to it,” Warren said.
Eli Lilly, Dell And Micron Trades Draw Warren’s Scrutiny
Warren highlighted a purchase of Eli Lilly stock in January, noting that Trump later publicly praised the popular GLP-1 weight-loss drug maker and questioned whether the timing was merely coincidental.
She also pointed to a February purchase of Dell Technologies shares worth up to $5 million, before Trump publicly encouraged consumers to purchase Dell products the following week.
Warren also added a March purchase of Micron Technology stock worth up to half a million dollars, arguing that Trump later spoke favorably about the chipmaker on Fox News, calling it “one of the hottest companies.”
‘Unusual By Any Standard’: Warren Cites Wall Street Concerns
Warren pointed to comments from Wall Street professionals who raised concerns about the scale of Trump’s trading activity, with one characterising it as “an unusual amount of trading by any standards” and another arguing that the underlying transactions should be reviewed to understand “why anyone would want to do this much trading.
Separately, in a heated exchange with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Warren said Trump’s trading activity amounted to a conflict of interest.
“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,” Bessent said.
Bessent pushed back on Warren’s criticism, telling the senator to “lead by example” if she supported banning individual stock trading by government officials. “If this body wants to ban individual stock trading, I would advocate it for yourself — start there,” Bessent said, adding that pursuing legislation remained her prerogative.
What have the stocks done this year?
The companies mentioned by Warren have been among some of the market’s notable winners in recent years, with Eli Lilly benefiting from demand for GLP-1 drugs and Micron and Dell garnering investor interest from the AI infrastructure buildout.
Shares of Dell have gained nearly 235% so far this year, while Micron has risen 242%. Eli Lilly is up 0.4%.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo Courtesy: Bryan J. Scrafford on Shutterstock.com
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