Josh Hawley says he had 'good chat' with Trump after dustup over stock
trading bill
[August 01, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO and LEAH ASKARINAM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Josh Hawley is brushing off President Donald
Trump's quip that he's a “second-tier” senator after the Republican’s
proposal to ban stock trading by members of Congress — and the president
and vice president — won bipartisan approval to advance in a committee
vote.
The Missouri Republican told Fox News late Wednesday that it’s “not the
worst thing” he’s ever been called and that he and the president ”had a
good chat” clearing up confusion over the bill.
The misunderstanding, Hawley said, was that Trump would have to sell his
Mar-a-Lago private club and other assets.
“Not the case at all,” Hawley said on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
It was the second time in many days that Trump laid into senators in his
own party as the president tries, sometimes without success, to publicly
pressure them to fall in line. Earlier, Trump tore into veteran GOP Sen.
Chuck Grassley of Iowa over an obscure Senate procedure regarding
nominations.
In a social media post, Trump called Hawley a “second-tier Senator” who
was playing into the hands of Democrats.
Trump added: “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!”
Stock trading bans gain support
Stock trading by members of Congress has long been an issue that both
parties have tried to tackle, especially as some elected officials have
become wealthy while in elected office. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in
particular, it was disclosed that lawmakers were trading as information
about the health crisis before it became public. Insider trading laws
don’t always apply to the types of information lawmakers receive.
Hawley’s legislation with the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of
Michigan, sailed out of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee, after his support delivered a bipartisan vote over
the objections of the other Republicans, who have majority control.
GOP senators had been working with the White House on the stock trade
bill, and some supported a broad carve-out to exclude the president from
the ban, but it failed, with Hawley joining Democrats to block it.
Trump also complained that Hawley joined with Democrats to block another
amendment that would have investigated the stock trades of Democratic
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emerita, and her spouse. Paul Pelosi has
been a much-watched trader, but the California lawmaker's office said
she personally does not own stock.
Hawley said after his conversation with Trump that the president
“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.” The
senator also suggested the Democratic leader should be prosecuted, but
it’s not clear on what grounds.
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Pelosi supports Hawley’s bill
Pelosi has said repeatedly that she’s not involved in her husband’s
work on investments, strongly supports the bill and looks forward to
voting for it in the House.
“The American people deserve confidence that their elected leaders
are serving the public interest — not their personal portfolios,”
she said.
In a joint statement, Hawley and Peters said the legislation, called
the Honest Act, builds on an earlier bill and would ban members of
Congress, the president, vice president and their spouses from
holding, buying or selling stock. An earlier proposal from Hawley,
named after Pelosi, had focused more narrowly on lawmakers.
If the bill were to become law, it would immediately prohibit
elected officials, including the president, from buying stocks and
would ban them from selling stocks for 90 days after enactment. It
also requires the elected officials to divest from all covered
investments, but not until the beginning of their next term in
office — shielding the term-limited president from that requirement.
“We have an opportunity here today to do something that the public
has wanted to do for decades,” Hawley told the panel. “And that is
to ban members of Congress from profiting on information that
frankly only members of Congress have on the buying and selling of
stock.”
During the committee hearing, tensions flared as Republicans sought
other approaches.
Republicans fail to exempt Trump from stock trading ban
GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida proposed one amendment that would
exempt the president, the vice president, their spouses and
dependent children from the legislation, and the other one that
would have required a report on the Pelosi family’s trades. Both
were defeated, with Hawley joining the Democrats.
“We are one step closer to getting this bill passed into law and
finally barring bad actors from taking advantage of their positions
for their own financial gain,” Peters said in a statement.
One Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said the overall bill
is “legislative demagoguery.”
“We do have insider trading laws. We have financial disclosure.
Trust me, we have financial disclosure,” Johnson said. “So I don’t
see the necessity of this.”
GOP’s Grassley ‘offended’ by Trump’s personal attack
Trump’s post criticizing Hawley comes after a similar blowback
directed Tuesday night at Grassley.
In that post, Trump pressured Grassley to do away with the Senate’s
longtime “blue slip” custom that often forces bipartisan support on
presidential nominations of federal judges. The practice requires
both senators in a state to agree to push a nominee forward for a
vote. Trump told Grassley to do away with the practice.
“Senator Grassley must step up,” Trump said, while claiming that he
helped the senator, who was first elected in 1980, to win
reelection.
Grassley earlier Wednesday said he was “offended” by what the
president said.
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