Republican Josh Hawley has responded to Donald Trump’s rage-fueled criticism that he is a “second-tier Senator.”
Trump fired off a furious Truth Social post on Wednesday after Hawley was the only Republican to vote for a committee bill to ban insider trading on stocks by lawmakers, presidents and vice presidents—and also prevent them from owning stocks.
“Why would one ‘Republican,’ Senator Josh Hawley from the Great State of Missouri, join with all of the Democrats to block a Review, sponsored by Senator Rick Scott, and with the support of almost all other Republicans, of Nancy Pelosi’s Stock Trading over the last 25 years,“ Trump posted.
Trump claimed information on the congressional stock trading bill was released late “very much like SABOTAGE!” and said Hawley was being used by Democrats “as a pawn to help them.”
He then added another slapdown: “I don’t think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the ‘whims’ of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!”
Fox News host Jesse Watters quizzed Hawley on his Primetime show about the president’s brutal “second-tier” insult.
“Well, it’s not the worst thing that’s been said about me, even today, Jesse,” Hawley replied.
The senator said he had spoken to Trump on Wednesday evening, and clarified where the insult may have come from.
While the language in the bill seems to suggest the president and vice president would be included in the ban on trading or owning stocks, it has been tweaked to not include Trump or Vice President JD Vance.
“Well, I think that the president... a number of people who are opposed to banning stock trading had said to the president that he would be covered by the (stock trading) bill, he’d have to sell Mar-a-Lago and sell assets—not the case at all.”
Hawley explained the assets of Trump and Vance are “totally exempted” from the bill he voted on, before turning his target to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who they alleged was the “poster child” of trading with insider information.
“I had a good chat with the president earlier this evening,” the senator said. “He reiterated to me he wants to see a ban on stock trading by people like Nancy Pelosi and members of Congress, which is what we passed today. Pelosi shouldn’t just be investigated, she should be prosecuted, and we need to make what she is doing and other members of Congress are doing illegal.”
Pelosi has become a regular target for MAGA fury over stock trading by her husband Paul.
In January, the New York Post reported Paul Pelosi had made $38 million worth of stock trades in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration. The ex-speaker is legally required to disclose the trades her husband makes.
She labeled claims of her involvement “ridiculous” to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday. “I’m not into it, my husband is, but it isn’t any thing to do with anything insider,” she added.
The bill has deliberately been given the name Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments—, meaning it has the acronym PELOSI.
Hawley told Fox, “The point of this bill is to ban members of Congress from trading on the information that only they have. I think we called it the Pelosi Act. It is named for her because she is the poster child of this kind of behavior. It ought to be illegal and it ought to be prosecutable.”
The senator claimed the new bill will not only cover Nancy Pelosi, but her husband. “We need to make it illegal for people to do this kind of thing. Nobody should be up in Congress making a quick buck day-trading when they should be doing the people’s business. The president wants a stock trading ban. I want a stock trading ban. It’s time to get it done.”
Trump, before his fiery Truth Social post on Wednesday, had told reporters of the bill, “I like it conceptually and you know Nancy Pelosi became rich by having inside information. She made a fortune with her husband, and I think that’s disgraceful.”
He added, “I study these things really carefully, and this just happened. So I’ll take a look at it. What I do think is Nancy Pelosi should be investigated.”
Earlier this month, Hawley said cuts to Medicaid were “both morally wrong and politically suicidal” despite voting for Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” that slashed the program.
