Donald Trump lashed out at his longtime ally and prominent MAGA Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in a bizarre Truth Social post on Wednesday. The president pilloried the senator as a “second-tier” lawmaker who had been used as a “pawn” by Democrats, after Hawley broke with Republicans to vote in favor of a congressional stock trading ban that will also apply to future presidents.
Trump reacted with unchecked rage after Hawley voted to advance the legislation out of committee.“The Democrats, because of our tremendous ACHIEVEMENTS and SUCCESS, have been trying to ‘Target’ me for a long period of time, and they’re using Josh Hawley, who I got elected TWICE, as a pawn to help them,” Trump wrote. “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!”
Hawley defended himself later on Wednesday. The president is “not covered by the PELOSI Act, but Nancy Pelosi is,” Hawley told reporters after Trump’s post bashing him. “Listen, I want the president to sign the bill, so I’m happy to do whatever it would take to get him to say, ‘Yes, this is good.’”
The legislation was initially dubbed the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose husband’s lucrative stock portfolio has practically become its own trading index. Pelosi has said she supports the trading ban, which has been renamed the HONEST Act. An amendment proposed by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), which would have authorized a review of the Pelosi family’s past trading activity, was voted down.
The version of the legislation that passed out of committee on Wednesday was amended to apply its trading ban to the president and vice president — rather than only members of Congress — as a compromise to win support from Democrats. However, that prohibition would only cover the president and VP starting in 2029. In other words, the legislation still exempts Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
Hawley claimed on Thursday that the president’s meltdown had been prompted by a misunderstanding: that Trump had been told the version of the bill Hawley supported would have forced Trump to sell Mar-a-Lago. Two sources familiar with the situation tell Rolling Stone that Trump indeed lashed out at Hawley because he was “confused” or “misunderstood” the details of what Hawley was proposing.
Hawley had already signed on to a version of the ban that had a carve-out in place for Trump and Vance. The president was convinced that the Hawley-endorsed version didn’t have the carve-out and would negatively affect him and his business empire before he left office. Hence, Trump thought it was, in the words of one of the sources, “an attack on him” favored by the Democrats, so he took it out on Hawley, a Trump ally and MAGA devotee. The two sources blamed Hawley and his office, in part at least, suggesting the legislative details weren’t made clear to the White House during this process.
In the end, though, some close to the president are saying that Trump was just yelling at the wrong Republican senator. “The guy he should have been shouting at is Rand Paul,” a White House official says.
Paul — whom Trump’s team is already annoyed with given the Kentucky Republican’s opposition to the president’s tariff agenda — attempted to drive Democratic support away from the bill by highlighting the fact that, while the legislation will cover the president, it will exempt Trump.
“I would oppose the substitute change because I think it should apply to everybody or nobody,” Paul said, according to The New York Times.
Hawley assured reporters on Thursday that he and Trump were back on good terms after he explained that he favored a version of the bill that would exempt Trump from the ban. “He said at the end, ‘Oh OK, great. This is good,’” the senator reportedly said of his call with Trump.
