Action on lawmaker stock trading remains stuck — even after Trump’s State of the Union push


One of the few bipartisan moments in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address was President Trump’s call for action on congressional stock trading.

“Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay,” Trump declared, to “ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information.”

The reaction was notable: The president expressed surprise at the bipartisan applause he received as the cameras cut to Sen. Elizabeth Warren clapping.

The moment was a reflection of public sentiment that overwhelmingly favors a ban. But there was little immediate evidence that Tuesday’s moment moved the needle — especially on the push for an all-out ban on lawmakers owning and trading stocks.

The specific measure Trump endorsed falls short of a ban, adding to a stalemate over varied approaches to the issue that had ground debate to a halt long before Trump took the dais on Tuesday.

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2026. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images)
President Trump delivers the State of the Union address at the US Capitol on Feb. 24. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) · ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images

The effort “had some momentum,” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, acting vice president at the Project on Government Oversight, said in an interview, “but then politics got in the way.”

“It’s one of those things that is super popular to campaign on and to talk about in public venues, but then when the rubber hits the road and Congress actually has to do something meaningful about it, that’s where you see how people really feel,” he added.

His group and others have been pushing for a ban on trading for years. The issue burst into public consciousness when lawmakers were revealed to be unloading stocks before the extent of the coming COVID-19 pandemic was widely known.

Since then, public opinion has firmly held in favor of a ban, with one poll finding a whopping 86% of Americans support the idea.

Yet it hasn’t slowed trading.

A recent Motley Fool analysis found more than 14,000 trades in 2025 spread among 140 lawmakers. It represented a total volume of over $720 million in trades that, the report notes, “tend to beat the market.”

Kedric Payne, vice president at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, said this issue is “one of the top problems Congress is going to have to face.”

Congress has seen no shortage of proposals, with a trio of different approaches emerging in recent months that have split lawmakers into factions.

The bill endorsed by Trump and popular with Republicans is called the Stop Insider Trading Act. It’s a partial ban that would prohibit lawmakers and their families from purchasing new stocks, but would allow ownership of individual stocks and require a public notice seven days before any stock sales.



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