PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) joined five Senate colleagues on Friday, calling for an investigation into possible insider trading in the Trump administration after the president announced a pause in some tariffs, giving the stock market a boost.

In a letter sent Friday to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins, the senators requested an investigation into whether President Trump, his family, cabinet members, administration officials, or donors profited from knowing the tariff plans, and if they were involved in any market manipulation or other SEC violations.

This comes after the president announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday against trading partners, while raising tariffs against China to 125%.

The announcement brought a “historical” surge in the stock market, the senators note, which came days after the initial tariff plan “threw markets into disarray.”

In their letter, the lawmakers pointed to stock market losses in recent days, such as the S&P 500 losing $5.6 trillion in market value — or 10% — within two days, while the Dow saw its “biggest back-to-back losses since the pandemic.”

After Trump’s tariff pause on Wednesday, the market told a different story. According to the lawmakers, the S&P 500 grew 9.5%, while the Dow saw a 7.9% surge and the Nasdaq rose 12.2%.

“We urge the SEC to investigate whether the tariff announcements, which caused the market crash and subsequent partial recovery, enriched administration insiders and friends at the expense of the American public and whether any insiders, including the President’s family, had prior knowledge of the tariff pause that they abused to make stock trades ahead of the President’s announcement,” the senators wrote.

“Before pausing the tariffs that threw markets into disarray, President Trump appears to have previewed his plans to do so on Truth Social: at 9:37 am, he announced, ‘THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.’ His official announcement of the tariff pause came roughly 4 hours later at 1:18 pm,” the senators continued. “It is unclear which officials and affiliates of President Trump
had advance knowledge of his plans to delay tariffs–but insiders may have known that he was
going to announce a tariff pause and that the market would improve.”

The senators additionally asked the SEC chair how the Trump administration’s cuts at the federal agency could impact the agency’s ability to respond to large-scale market events and the agency’s enforcement of violations.

Senate colleagues joining the letter include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Adam Schiff (D-CA).