President Donald Trump called out the ongoing insider trading allegations among members of Congress during his State of the Union address, taking direct aim at Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
It’s a fair criticism. She’ll retire from Congress at the end of this term with an estimated net worth of $278 million (compared to roughly $30 million when she first became speaker).
Criticism of Pelosi’s skyrocketing wealth is not new. In February 2025, headlines blasted disclosures that her husband’s stock investment in Tempus AI doubled in value in one month, from $50,001 to $100,000.
Similar questions of insider trading arose in April 2025, when former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and other congressmen purchased stocks in companies damaged by the announcement of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. According to disclosures, Greene purchased shares in Lululemon, Dell, and Apple following a stock market decline in light of Trump’s announcement and mere days before he announced a 90-day pause, which caused stock values to rebound.
Over the past year, several pieces of legislation have been introduced to revise and strengthen the existing Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s HONEST Act, Texas Rep. Chip Roy’s Restore Trust in Congress Act, and Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil’s Stop Insider Trading Act.
The proposed legislation is simple: Members of Congress and their families cannot buy, hold, or sell any stocks or other financial instruments while in office. Essentially, elected officials should not be profiting just because their position affords them greater access to information.
We know public officials have a right and a duty to know how internal and external events affect specific American industries so that they can pursue the best actions to secure the U.S.’s economy. Sadly, the repeated abuse of this information for personal gain has made this type of legislation necessary. Between 2019 and 2021, 97 senators or representatives reported trade activity involving industries that they would have intimate knowledge of and be direct targets of lobbying by those industries based upon their committee assignments.
Watchdogs report more than 100 members of Congress make an average of 10,000 trades per year. Since January 2025, Capitol Trades has reported that 109 members of Congress have made 7,945 trades involving a trade volume of $370.3 million. In 2024, both Republicans’ and Democrats’ stock portfolios beat the market 24% gain — Democrats experienced a 31% increase in stock value and Republicans experienced a 26% gain.
In an attempt to rein in this illicit practice, Congress passed the STOCK Act, which requires members of Congress to disclose stock trades of $1,000 or more within 45 days of the transaction or face a paltry penalty of a $200 fine. If they’re caught conducting insider trading, they may face a fine, imprisonment of up to 15 years, and/or be disqualified from holding federal office.
What would happen to an average person who was caught with these suspicious financial disclosures? Depending upon the severity of the insider trading charges, a criminal violation can result in a $5 million fine and up to 20 years in prison. Less severe civil violations still carry a fine of up to three times the profit gained.
Obviously, there is a double standard in the deterrence of insider trading. What happens to a society that holds its elected officials to a different standard than the very people they represent?
In Federalist 57, James Madison warns that if the “spirit which nourishes freedom” were to become “so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty.” The presence of these double standards, while seemingly inconsequential, serves as a warning sign of a crumbling representative government. Left unchecked, we sacrifice our freedom for tyranny.
We must hold our leaders to the same moral and legal standards by which we ourselves are required to abide — equally protected and equally prosecuted under the law. No position of power should allow laws to benefit those in office over the people they swore to represent. It is our duty to hold these leaders accountable.
TRUMP’S EPIC GAMBLE ON EPIC FURY
If we don’t, are we prepared to watch our nation be susceptible to tyranny?
Jaimie Erker is the director of communications for the Centennial Institute, Colorado Christian University’s public policy think tank. She holds bachelor’s degrees in politics and history and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in History and Government.
