Several Democratic congressmen have expressed suspicions that US President Donald Trump may have illegally manipulated the markets by encouraging stock buybacks just before his policy change, which delayed the entry into force of import tariffs by 90 days, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
"Is Donald Trump's inner circle illegally profiting from these huge stock market fluctuations through insider trading?" California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff wrote today on his profile on the social network "Ex" (X).
"Congress needs to know", he added, calling for a parliamentary investigation.
"The US President is literally participating in the largest market manipulation in the world", Democratic congressmen from the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee (the lower house of the US Congress - ed.) also wrote on the "Ex" platform.
After sparking a global trade war and shaking markets, the US President wrote yesterday on the social network "Truth Social" (Truth Social), minutes after Wall Street opened: "IT'S TIME TO BUY".
Hours later, he announced a 90-day delay in the implementation of additional tariffs on dozens of countries, excluding China, sparking a historic stock market rally.
After several days of decline, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 7.87 percent, its biggest gain since 2008, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 12.16 percent, its biggest gain since 2001.
An ethics lawyer also said there was a case for an investigation.
"Presidents are not investment advisors," wrote Richard Painter, a law professor and former White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, in "Ex". "This scenario could expose the president to accusations of market manipulation", he said on NBC television.
"It is the responsibility of the president of the United States to reassure the markets and the American people of their economic security amid the constant fear-mongering in the media," White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai told the "Washington Post".
A video posted on the "Ex" platform by Margo Martin, an assistant and communications adviser to the White House, shows Trump receiving Charles Schwab, founder and co-chairman of the eponymous financial company "Charles Schwab" in the Oval Office yesterday.
"This is Charles Schwab," Trump said, adding that "he is not just a company, he is actually a person! And he made $2.5 billion today."
Donald Trump also signed his post on "Truth Social" with the letters DJT, which represent both his initials and the stock market abbreviation of his media company "Trump Media & Technology Group" (TMTG), whose shares rose 21.67 percent at the end of trading yesterday, AFP added.